Bottled water in today’s world is quite common. However, the environmental toll of bottled water consumption is quite high. In 2007 in the USA alone, bottled water production and transportation used the energy equivalent of 47 million barrels of oil. This is enough to fuel 1.5 million cars for a year. Approximately 75 percent of plastic bottles are never recycled, despite being in demand by recyclers due to the high quality of plastics used. Many of these bottles end up in landfills and thus bottled water produces an inordinate amount of waste: bottled water produces up to 1.5 million tons of waste each year, ending up in our landfills, oceans, and lakes. It can take anywhere from 450 1000 years for a plastic bottle to biodegrade, meaning that once they are in a the ground, they will be in the ground for quite a while.
And in many cases, bottled water isn’t anything special. Very often, individual bottles of water are simply local tap water at a mark up of up to 1000 times the actual cost. Almost all bottled water producers, whether individual sized bottles or five gallon carboys, start with municipal water that is filtered and then bottled.
Therefore, it is important to consider alternative to bottled water, such as botteless water coolers. Bottleless water coolers are systems that are superior to systems that require bottles because they do not allow for the introduction of bacteria. There are several types of water filtration methods, including reverse osmosis, carbon filtration, ozone and ultraviolet. Bottleless water coolers are available in a range of sizes, and can be freestanding or countertop models.The point of use water coolers is to reduce the waste associated with bottled water. Overall, bottleless water coolers are a great option. Consider bottleless water coolers to reduce the level of waste you generate.