Environmental impact on bottled water

As mentioned, the evident environmental problems Ill within 3 major Ideas that are outlined In this report. First of all, it is shown that the production of bottled water results in an overindulgent use of energy and water. Next, it is revealed that there is a large cost associated with shipping and procurement costs which ultimately lead to the extreme emissions of fossil fuels and gas. And finally, the mass generation of solid and plastic waste that polluted our environment with plastic bottles overpopulating our landfills.

No, In fact, consumers perfectly knowing the circumstances of this situation they are still willing to buy the product. In 1998, the average Canadian drank only 30 liters of bottled water per year. By 2005, that volume had doubled (Banning the Bottle, 2008). For manufacturers that sell bottled water, they face stern marketing problems, Environmentally unfriendly Problems: The plastics being used to produce and package causes a lot of unnecessary waste. The sales of bottled water have soared to highs of $58 billion Euros ($92 billion CAD) in 2006 (Mild, 2006).

This was due to extremely excellent marketing by suggesting that bottled water is safer and cleaner than regular tap water. However with these extreme profit margins for bottled water manufacturers/ Aquifer, they have yet to realize that their product is extremely unethical to the environment. These implications have severely targeted Aquifer’s brand image and three environmental implications that will be thoroughly analyzed: Excess use of energy and Watergate shipping and procurement Cotswold and plastic waste generation the end of the proposal Aquifer will have a decision to make in regards to, l .

Why should Aquifer use environmentally friendly materials to promote a clean and safe environment for their consumers and reduce on energy levels being wasted? 2. Why should Aquifer add more water purification plants and warehouses on a global scale to reduce emissions on gas due to transportation cost? 3. Why should Aquifer promote recycling programs to the customers to prevent excess and unnecessary waste? Plants AND Fiendishness Abundant Use of Energy and Watertight the overall consumption of bottled water on the steady rise, it raises a lot of moral questions in regards to the use of energy that’s being generated to create the bottles.

First of all, it takes a significant amount of resources in order to produce a bottle of water. The plastic used to create most of these bottles is known as lethally ethereally (PET). If we analyze the amount of water bought in America in 2006, it equates to 31. 2 billion liters of water. These bottles require nearly 900, 000 tons of the plastic (Pacific Institute, 2006), which are drawn from crude oils. To meet the demands of American’s desire for bottled water, manufacturers must use over 17 millions of barrels of oil on an annual basis, which can evidently fuel more than 1 million cars for a whole year (Arnold and Larsen, 2006).

As you can see, this is a major contributing factor as to why certain customers can start to De-value he image of Aquifer (or any other manufacturer for that matter) due to these statistics. When customers start to feel more environmentally aware, it will establish a chain reaction to local governments within states and provinces to either ban or severely limit the sales of bottled water. For instance, the Waterloo region have already banned the sales of plastic bottles in its schools starting in 2009, and in August 2008, London, Onto. Voted to ban all bottled water in city offices, recreational centers and parks (CB News, 2008). Another notable resource being used in the reaction of bottled water is water itself. Manufacturers tend to ” over-extract” water from large bodies of water, this can grant negative impurities on nature as it affects the flows of the rivers, streams, ecosystems, and the natural habitat of under watered species (Gees, 2008). Another contributing factor that degrades the image of manufacturers is idea of false advertising.

When consumers look at an Aquifer bottle they see snowy mountings, hinting that the water comes from a fresh spring up north. However it is reported that Aquifer drinking water is taken from public municipal sources then is filtered in a seven step process for the customer (CBS News; Lopez, 2008). Consequently, it takes roughly 3 liters of water to produce 1 liter of bottled water (Pacific Institute, n. D). Not to mention the plants and trucks involvement on the extraction process. With dozens of trucks and vehicles coming in and out of the extraction area it’s bound to create some noise and pollution to the environment.

Thus, the energy output being used to create these bottles is slowly but surely depleting our earth’s natural resources and causing unnecessary pollution to preserved natural areas. To answer the previous question asked, ” Why should Aquifer use environmentally friendly materials to promote a clean and safe environment for their customers? ” – The answer is simple, to promote a positive The Excess Shipping and Procurement Costliest the increase in more health conscious individuals they are growing more concerned for ” clean drinking water”.

It’s distinguished that the world consumption of bottled water has doubled between 1997 and 2005 (Gabardine, 2007). It’s noted that consumers who purchase bottled water consider that the water is cleaner than regular tap water. With this increase on demand, it creates added pressure for manufacturers like you, to fill those demands. In order to fill these demands, manufacturers will need to export water on a global basis. Exporting, transporting, and storage are all factors to consider when transferring bottled water. Exporting and transportation methods being used today are: trucks, boats, planes, and trains.

On the latter, storage costs include; warehousing and refrigerator costs. Although a lot of corporations’ par-take on these processes, they differ then those in the bottled water industry. Water is very cheap ND water is very heavy! It is evident that water will cost a lot of money to transport and that will raise disputes on cost and emission of gases onto the environment. For instance, one study indicated that the bottled water industry in I-J generated an annual of 33, 200 tons of carbon dioxide emissions through transport alone, which is equal to the consumption of energy of approximately 6, 000 homes (Mild, 2006).

Whether Aquifer or any other manufacturer is transporting their bottled water by truck, air or rail they are still burning massive fossil fuels. It is noted that ” more than trillion” gallons of bottled water is shipped internationally. For example, consumers in San Francisco can now buy water from Fiji which is approximately 5500 miles away to satisfy their demand for ” Fiji water” (Lea, 2007). In the perspective of Canadians, arguably they have the ” clearest and purest” tap water that anyone can possibly drink (Angel, 2008).

David Suzuki, an environmental activist, argued that ” buying bottled water is wrong” and it would be ” nuts to be shipping water all way across the planet” and because Canadians are so ” bloody wealthy” that they are willing to buy eater that comes from France (Suzuki, 2007). Therefore, with the movement of bottled water being so frequent in today’s society it creates a great emission of pollution due to the trucks and planes involved with the transportation of the product.

To answer, ” Why should Aquifer add more water purification plants and warehouses on a global scale to reduce emissions on gas due to transportation cost? ” – The answer is simple, to help contribute to the environment and help contribute to the reduction of usage of fossil fuels. Solid and Plastic Waste Genealogically, environmentally aware individuals believe hat bottle water is a ” total unnecessary product,” says Aaron Freeman, an Ottawa- based policy director for Environmental Defense (Gilchrest, n. ). Reasons being are those discussed in the previous point, however water bottle manufacturers are still unaware or not taking more action to the largest cause that De-value Aquifer and other manufacturers alike. This negative factor is the plastic waste generation that bottle water bestows onto our society. It is apparent that American’s spend about $1 1 billion dollars per year on bottled water, in that process they contribute to the enervation of 2. 7 million tons of plastic bottles (Zilch, 2008).

Even with a 30% bottles are recycled while the remains end up in landfills where they take 1000 of years to degrade (Mild, 2006; Inman, 2007). This is not the bad part, even if consumers were to recycle their bottled water, it is still known as a ” waste of resources” because of their energy emission required to produce the product (Angel, 2008). In this new decade, it is noted that consumers are more declined to recycle, reports indicated that the recycling rate of PET water bottles have fallen by 23. % in the United States in 2005, compared with 39. % 10 years earlier (Gabardine, 2007). With the worldwide consumption on the increase; growing 12% in the United States and growing as much as 50% in newer markets such as India. Bottled water is accounted for the single largest growth area amongst all beverages that include juice, soft drinks and alcohol (Llanos, 2005). It is known that bottled water is consumed far away from homes, where recycling cannot take place. We can see the devastating effects that these plastic bottles will have on our environment. What will come of these landfills in the next 10, 20, 50 years?

The picture doesn’t exactly paint a beautiful meadow, at least not with these statistics. As a result, to answer the previous question mentioned, ” Why should Aquifer promote recycling programs to the customers to prevent excess and unnecessary waste? ” – The answer would be to promote a very healthy and prosperous recycling cycle amongst bottled water drinkers. SUMMARY AND Conclusion conclusion, as a result of these findings its noted that there is an excess use of energy, a heavy shipping cost, and finally a lack of morals in geared to waste management.

The results indicated that the following arguments are true to the sense that bottled water is polluting our environment and making the world a soiled atmosphere to live in. More results that can be drawn are, there is a swift rise on the consumption of water, despite all the negative aspirations about bottled water consumers are still willing to contribute to the cause. Aquifer needs to quickly act in order to substitute change into the world to ultimately making it a more suitable environment to live.

The implications of the findings is that the results re gathered from global resources, these results might be harder to interrupt because the majority of Aquifer’s market share lies strictly between North American boarders. The next steps that Aquifer should take are gathering more information about their strongest market (United States) and start to implement change in there. It would be cheaper to implement the change in one geographic region rather than many at once, afterwards they need to interpret the results to see what major changes need to be made and start to work on a global basis.