I recently found a report (Dovetail Partners - Consuming Responsibly Number 1) discussing research to calculate the environmental impacts of municipal tap water vs. single-use bottled water. According to the report, ”single-use bottled water systems consume 11-90 times more energy than tap systems”. The impacts studied for single-use bottled water included those from production of the bottles, transportation of the bottled water, and disposal or recycling of the bottles. Impacts studied for municipal tap water systems included the steps performed by the treatment plant to treat the water so it is safe before being pumped to your tap. Municipal water supply systems in the US are required to provide water that meets safety standards developed by the Environmental Protection Agency. Although there are times when single-use bottled water is useful and appropriate, much of the time a reusable water bottle filled from the tap or a drinking fountain provides water that is just as good but has much less impact on the environment. You can read the entire report at this link:
http://www.dovetailinc.org/report_pdfs/2018/DovetailConsumeResp1Water.pdf
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