Bottled Water

Back to the Tap - TIME Annotated

Americans drank more than 8.25 billion gal. (more than 31 billion L) of bottled water in 2006, a 9.5% increase from the year before. We buy more bottled water than any other beverage except soft drinks, and soda's market share is fizzling fast.

But the phenomenal growth in bottled water isn't just draining our wallets--it's also putting stress on the environment. It takes oil to make the plastic in all those bottles and oil to transport the water from its source to the consumer, and that means greenhouse gases--a primary cause of global warming. The NRDC estimates that 4,000 tons of CO2 is generated each year--the equivalent of the emissions of 700 cars--by importing bottled water from Fiji, France and Italy, three of the biggest suppliers to the U.S.

The pollution of the skies is matched by the trash left underfoot. Fewer than a quarter of plastic bottles are recycled, leaving 2 billion lbs. (900 million kg) a year to clog landfills.