ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY

Innowave, the green solution for office water.

A bottleless water system is most certainly the right answer when it comes to the environment. Below are some of the facts.

• The World Wildlife Foundation estimates that 1.5 million tons of plastic are used globally each year for water bottles
• According to the Earth Policy Institute 1.5 million barrels of oil are required to make plastic bottles per year, enough to fuel 1,000 cars for a year
• According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), bottled waters do not have any greater nutritive value than tap water
• Delivering bottled water from far away places burn fossil fuels and results in the release of thousands of tons of harmful emissions; 22 million tons of bottled liquid is transferred each year from their country of origin, transported by boat, train, air and ground transport
• Bottled water that is shipped and/or stored cold requires additional electricity
• Large amounts of energy are used in water bottling plants throughout the US and the world
• Energy is required to remove the empty bottles in the form of recycling or trash
• Bottled water may be no safer, or healthier than tap water in many countries while selling for up to 1000 times the price
• Typically 90 % or more of the cost paid by bottled water consumers goes to things other than the water itself -- bottling, packaging, shipping, marketing, retailing, other expenses, and profit
• According to the Climate Action Network, when some plastic bottles are incinerated along with other trash, as is the practice in many municipalities, toxic chlorine (and potentially dioxin) is released into the air while heavy metals deposit in the ash
• The Container Recycling Institute (CRI) estimates that supplying the US bottled water market for 1 year consumes more than 1.5 million barrels of oil, which is enough to generate electricity for more than 250,000 homes or enough to fuel 100,000 cars for an entire year
• The CRI estimates that 90% of plastic water bottles end up as either garbage or litter
• Plastic accounts for 25% of the total volume of material sent to landfills every year and plastic water bottles can take as long as 1,000 years to biodegrade. Plastics are the fastest growing sector in the waste stream and currently take up 25 percent of the volume of materials sent to landfills each year
• Tap water is distributed through an energy efficient infrastructure
• Approximately 40 percent of bottled water begins as tap water
• Less than 5 percent of plastic waste is recycled each year

Sources:

* Ferrier, Catherine. “Bottled Water: Understanding a Cultural Phenomenon,” World Wildlife Fund.
* Germacimos, Ann. “Land Full of Bottles,” The Washington Times,  May 24, 2007
* Howard, Brian. “Message in a Bottle: Despite the Hype, Bottled Water is Neither Cleaner Nor Greener than Tap Water,” E: The Environmental Magazine, September - October 2003.
* “Bottled Water: A River of Money,” by Fast Company at http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/BottledWaterARiverOfMoney.aspx?page=1
* CNN's All About Plastic featured on Container Recycling Institute website at http://www.container-recycling.org/mediafold/newsarticles/plastic/2007/9-12-CNN-AllAboutPlastic.htm