Learn the Facts

Why is bottled water waste a concern? Here are just a few reasons...

• In spite of having easy access to clean water, the United States is the world’s largest bottled water consumer.1 In 2008, the U.S. used enough plastic water bottles to stretch around the Earth more than 190 times.
• It takes 2,000 times more energy to produce a bottle of water than it does to produce tap water.2
• Many people intend to recycle disposable water bottles; however, 69% of bottled water containers end up in the trash and not in a recycling container.3

Ditching bottled water keeps Mother Earth and your wallet green.

• One Brita pitcher filter can effectively replace as much as 300 standard 16.9-ounce bottles. So you can get great-tasting water without so much waste. Talk about refreshing.
• The average Brita pitcher filters 240 gallons of water a year for about 19 cents a day.4 Put in perspective, to get the same amount of water from bottled water would require 1,818 16.9-ounce water bottles a year.5
• For about $10 each, you can purchase a 16-ounce or 32-ounce Nalgene bottle, saving you hundreds of dollars a year on bottled water.
• Hydration at its best — carry the water you need and reduce your impact on the environment — one Nalgene bottle can last for decades, making it easy to stop buying single-serve bottled water to fulfill your everyday hydration needs.

Many people drink bottled water because they believe it to be of a higher quality, cleaner and better-tasting, but that's not necessarily true.

• In the United States, 24 percent of bottled water sold is either Pepsi's Aquafina (13 percent of the market) or Coke's Dasani (11 percent of the market). Both brands are bottled, purified municipal water.6
• Dr. Gina Solomon, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group, told The New York Times that "there is no reason to believe that bottled water is safer than tap water."7
• In the U.S., public water is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which requires multiple daily tests for bacteria and makes results available to the public. The Food and Drug Administration, which regulates bottled water, only requires weekly testing and does not share its findings with the EPA or the public.7