The Bottled Water Trend
The U.S is the largest consumer market for bottled water in the world. In 2008, bottled water sales in the U.S. topped 8.6 billion gallons. Between 1990 and 1997, US sales of bottled water shot from $115 million to $4 billion. Bottled water sales account for 28.9% of the U.S. liquid refreshment market. 50 billion bottles of water are consumed annually in the U.S. and around 200 billion bottles globally.
In 2005, the bottled water industry spent $158 million on advertising in the U.S alone. In 2006, Pepsi spent $20 million on one advertising campaign for Aquafina. In 2011, the bottled water industry is forecast to have a volume of 174,286.6 million liters and a value of $86.4 billion. The global rate of consumption of bottled water has more than doubled between 1997 and 2005. Sales have grown 1,000% since 1984 and bottled water has become a $15 billion industry.
What's Wrong with Drinking Bottled Water?
It takes 17 million barrels of oil each year to make water bottles for the U.S. market. That would be enough oil to fuel 1.3 million cars for a year. 37,800 18-wheelers deliver bottled water around the country every week. Manufacturing and filling the plastic water bottles, on average wastes 30-40% of the water involved in the process. Only 60-70% of the water ends up in the bottles on supermarket shelves. This is partly because the bottle-making machines are cooled by water. Most water bottles are made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is a polymer derived from oil. Only 23% of water bottles are recycled- 38 billion are land filled each year.
50 billion bottles of water are consumed annually in the U.S. and around 200 billion bottles globally.
