The Simplest and Most Effective Way to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Part 2 in a 2-part miniseries.


Bottled water is a huge industry but a huge waste of money and resources. No matter which way you look at it, bottled water is harmful to the environment and the economy.

Drinking tap water instead of bottled water is one of the simplest and most effective ways to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide you put in the atmosphere. As mentioned in 7 Facts You Never Knew About Bottled Water, 89% of water bottles are not recycled. Even if that number only went down to 70%, the result would be HUGE. And if every single water bottle was recycled…Well, we can always hope.

Standard water bottles are made of PET (Terephthalate), which is made of crude oil. One kilogram of PET uses around 6.45 kilograms of crude oil and results in 3.7 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions [1]. 3.7 kg of emissions for one bottle of water just for making the bottle; let’s not even get in to the transportation emissions (which must be considerably higher).

If you had to attempt to give the most common reason bottled water is bought, what would you say? Most likely you would say, “Bottled water is cleaner than tap water.” Yes, why else would one buy bottled water? Tap water is more convenient and less expensive. If you found out bottled water is just as sanitary as tap water, would you use tap water? More likely than not. Well, tap water is just as sanitary as bottled water. Not only that, but 40% of bottled water starts as tap water.

If you’re still not convinced, think about this economically. Tap water is essentially free. Buy an “unbreakable” water bottle and fill it up whenever you need it.

Environmentally, economically and sanitarily bottled water is not what it appears. If you truly care about your environment (and your checkbook), you should not buy bottled water as often as possible.