Details economic and environmental benefits of using refillable water bottles vs. buying bottled water. By Josh Thomas, President Central Piedmont Chapter of the Sierra Club

1. Thursday, February 5, 2009

2. Thursday, February 5, 2009

3. What’s in the bucket?
Hint: It’s NOT bottled water!
Thursday, February 5, 2009

4. Thursday, February 5, 2009

5. = $1.50 = $0.00
for water for water
Thursday, February 5, 2009

6. = $0.01
for water
Thursday, February 5, 2009

7. = $6.00
for water
Thursday, February 5, 2009

8. 2004 total bottled water consumption (liters)
26,000,000,000
18,000,000,000
12,000,000,000 12,000,000,000
China Brazil Mexico United States
Thursday, February 5, 2009

9. Thursday, February 5, 2009

10. liters means
• 6,868,473,361 gallons of bottled water/year
• 24 gallons of bottled water per person/year
• 4 bottles/person/week (16 oz bottle)
• 8 oz of bottled water per person/day
• 1,500,000 barrels of oil to make plastic bottles,
enough to fuel 100,000 cars for one year
Thursday, February 5, 2009

11. Thursday, February 5, 2009

12. In the US, 86% of recyclable water bottles
end up as garbage or litter. So ...
Thursday, February 5, 2009

13. 4 (bottles/wk)
* 86% (trash)
= 1,500 water
bottles that end
up as garbage
or litter
every second!
Thursday, February 5, 2009

14. Thursday, February 5, 2009

15. But what if ...
she replaced 2 of
her 4 bottles each
week with a
reusable container
filled with tap
water?
Thursday, February 5, 2009

16. What if ...
we all did?
Thursday, February 5, 2009

17. if each person in the US replaced 2 of 4 bottles/week
with a reusable container filled with tap water ...
• 24,000,000,000 bottles would NOT become garbage or litter every year
• 750,000 barrels of oil could be saved EVERY year
• we would each save about $150 EVERY year
Thursday, February 5, 2009

18. Can we do it?
Thursday, February 5, 2009