Bottled Water Market Begins to Stagnate in the United States
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY 
on 09. 8.08
photo: Liz via flickr
The very un-TreeHugger nature of the bottled water industry has graced this site numerous times, but there is some good news:
In the world’s largest market for bottled water, the United States, more people seem to be getting the message that bottled water is not only a waste of resources, but also money. According to the Worldwatch Institute, growth in the US bottled water market is starting to slow down after years of increases.
Slowest Growth in a Decade
Though we haven’t yet seen actual declines in growth, this year’s projected growth is expected to be 6.7%, the smallest increase in the past ten years. It seems that increased public awareness, including action by several restaurants and municipalities, about the negative impact of bottle water are shifting consumer habits.
Bottled Water's Bad Rep
In case you don’t know, here are some of the less-than-green details about bottled water:
Bottled water can take up to nearly 7 times the amount of water contained in the bottle to actually manufacture and deliver it.
It costs somewhere between $500-1000 per cubic meter, versus $0.50 for tap water (at least in the US).
More than 40% of bottled waters (again, in the US) actually come from public water supplies—so you’re essentially paying for something which you could be getting for free and is of no higher quality: In fact tap water often has higher quality standards.
Only about 23% of water bottles are recycled, resulting in some 2 million tons of bottles ending up in landfills, costing $70 million to dispose of.
For more on bottled water, including some of the lobbying efforts to improve bottled water’s image, read the original article from the :: Worldwatch Institute.
Bottled Water
Pablo Calculates the True Cost of Bottled Water
Greenwash Watch: “Green” Bottled Water
A World of Reasons to Ditch Bottled Water
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"resulting in some 2 million bottles ending up in landfills, costing $70 million to dispose of"
Now, I frown upon bottled water as much as the next TreeHugger but this can't be right. Those figures would put the disposal costs at $35 per bottle! If that were the case I'm sure bottle water would rapidly disappear from our shops.
To quote the first line "The very un-TreeHugger nature of the bottled water industry has graced this site numerous times"
So why is it that there are Fiji bottled water ads on TreeHugger? Not only is it bottled water, but from across the ocean.
I'm sure the problem is in the figures: 2 million empty bottles in the US (with a population of 300 million)? Perhaps it was 2 BILLION bottles...makes more sense.
I'll be glad when there is no growth.
While it is good to see another idiot trend bite the dust, what really needs to happen is people need to cast off lines of thought like "natural is better", conspiracy minded crap like "vaccines cause autism", and other woo based thoughts and embrace a rationalist world view.
Rayrob:
That's not 2 million bottles, that's 2 million tons of bottles. That's $35 a ton, which is a conservative estimate in many, many places.
@rayrob
The quote as I read it said,
Only about 23% of water bottles are recycled, resulting in some 2 million tons of bottles ending up in landfills, costing $70 million to dispose of.
Maybe they updated the story. Two million tons makes a lot more sense. Two million bottles is probably the output from a medium sized city in a day.
I'm glad the market is stagnating.
I think an even bigger issue is bottled softdrink. Many people choose between a bottle of coke and a bottle of water at lunch, for example. Clearly, the coke is worse for the environment, because - everything else being equal - coke is essentially bottled water with extra ingredients and processing.
To vilify people who choose bottled water - when they have actually chosen it over bottled pop/soda - is confusing the issue. (Sure, people could ask for tap water, or bring their own water, or something - but often that is not the choice confronting them at the moment where it counts.)
Call me crazy, but 6.7% annual growth is hardly stagnation. It means the bottled water market is growing two to three times as fast as the economy as a whole.
If people were catching on to the idea that bottled water isn't worth it, they'd be buying less, not more. This looks more like we're reaching market saturation (everyone only drinks a certain amount of water, total, after all, so it can't grow indefinitely) than a declining consumer interest in the product.
Call me crazy, but 6.7% annual growth is hardly stagnation. It means the bottled water market is growing two to three times as fast as the economy as a whole.
If people were catching on to the idea that bottled water isn't worth it, they'd be buying less, not more. This looks more like we're reaching market saturation (everyone only drinks a certain amount of water, total, after all, so it can't grow indefinitely) than a declining consumer interest in the product.
It's not hard to believe that it cost 35 dollars a bottle to dispose of. The cost starts to incure the moment of packaging, then delivery to the market, the distance you travel to purchase it , the return trip home, how far the garbage man has to go to get your trash , then to the land fill, and last but not least the compacters that run all day to flatten the debris so they can burry it and stack more on top of it. I live near Port Huron, MI and we have more than two hundred garbage SEMIS a day coming across the Blue water bridge to dump their waste in our land fills. After you figure diesel fuel is still over 3 dollars a gallon I would still argue that 35 dollars a bottle is a low figure. If you want to argue the math figure it out yourself and let us know