New DECC Policy on Bottled Water

Don't laugh this is serious

The following is an email that was distributed by the Department of Environment and Climate Change (NSW). While you may not agree with all the reasoning the fact that a Government Department is taking action must be applauded.

Pat

The environmental costs of bottled water (producing, transporting refrigerating and disposing of the bottles) has led the DECC Executive to eliminate all non-essential bottled water purchases from the Department. Of course staff can purchase their own bottled water, but please think twice, and consider refilling your water bottles from the tap.

Did you know?

• Australians spent $385 million on 250 million litres of bottled water in2006 (AC Nielson). It takes a whopping 141,666 barrels of oil just to make the resin for the plastic bottles (Polyethylene Terephthalate or PET). Then another 314,465 barrels of oil are used to convert the PET to plastic bottles, bottle, transport and refrigerate the water. This much oil adds up to over 60,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. So every time you drink a litre of bottled water, you're using 200 ml of oil (Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment & Security).


• And then only 35% of bottles actually make it to a recycling depot (Plastics and Chemicals Industry Association 2005-06 report). And for those bottles that are recycled, the recycling process uses another 1,600 barrels of oil each year.


• If everyone in DECC bought one 1 litre bottle of water each week, this would result in 52 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions - from the production, transport and refrigeration of the bottles. So think about turning on the tap instead


• Tap water costs around $1.20 a tonne but bottled water costs $3000 a tonne!


• Tap water contains fluoride which significantly improves dental health.


• Some people do not like the taste of chlorine that is added to tap water for disinfection – but it's easy to remove if you sit the water in an open jug or bottle for a few hours.


• Marketing campaigns from bottled water companies sometimes claim that bottled water is safer than tap water – which can be the true in some countries, but all major centres in NSW have a clean reliable water supply.

DECC is leading NSW by example