BOTTLED WATER: THE IMPACT ON MUNICIPAL WASTE STREAMS

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BOTTLED WATER THE IMPACT ON MUNICIPAL WASTE
STREAMS
Brett Rosenberg The U.S. Conference of Mayors May
1, 2008 New York City
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BOTTLED WATER THE IMPACT ON MUNICIPAL WASTE
STREAMS

• RESOLUTION 90 IMPORTANCE OF MUNICIPAL WATER
• WHEREAS, more than a quarter of bottled water is
  sourced from municipal tap water and
• WHEREAS, bottled water must travel many miles
  from the source, resulting in the burning of
  massive amounts of fossil fuels, releasing CO2
  and other pollution into the atmosphere and
• WHEREAS, plastic water bottles are one of the
  fastest growing sources of municipal waste and
• WHEREAS, in the U.S. the plastic bottles produced
  for water require 1.5 million barrels of oil per
  year, enough to generate electricity for 250,000
  homes or fuel 100,000 cars for a year and
• NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that The US
  Conference of Mayors encourage a compilation of
  information regarding the importance of municipal
  water and the impact of bottled water on
  municipal waste.

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Bottled Water Municipal Waste

• Definitions
• Consumption Demand
• Recycling Opportunities and Challenges
• Solid Waste
• Other Environmental Concerns

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Bottled Water Municipal Waste

• The production, packaging, distribution and
  consumption patterns of the different types of
  bottled water vary considerably.
• Non-carbonated, or still water
• Individual bottles, either sold separately or in
  bulk
• Plastic bottles made of polyethylene
  terephthalate (PET or PETE)

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Demand/Consumption

• Americans bought a total of 8.3 billion gallons
  of bottled water in 2006, sold in a variety of
  containers from small single-serving bottles to
  multi-gallon water cooler bottles.
• Of this amount, non-carbonated water totaled 7.3
  billion gallons, or 88 of the total bottled
  water market
• Individual PET containers accounted for 4.7
  billion gallons, i.e., 57 of the bottled water
  market.

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Demand/Consumption

• According to the Container Recycling Institute,
  Americans buy an estimated 25 billion
  single-serving, plastic water bottles each year.
• Another source estimates that Americans went
  through about 50 billion plastic water bottles
  last year, about 167 per person.
• The Container Recycling Institute states that
  Non-sparkling bottled water sales doubled in
  three years going from 15 billion units sold in
  2002 to 29.8 billion sold in 2005.
• This is almost seven times the 3.8 billion units
  sold in 1997. Sales of plastic water bottles 1
  liter or less increased more than 115, from 13
  billion in 2002 to 27.9 billion in 2005.

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Recycling Opportunities
At present, the market for post-consumer PET
bottles in the United States is strong.
However, there is a growing gap between the
demand for post-consumer bottles and the
available supply. Simply put, there are not
enough post-consumer bottles in the recycling
system to satisfy the demands of the domestic PET
reclaimers. But Demand for post-consumer PET
containers collected by local recycling programs
have made it difficult for domestic materials
reclaimers to compete and has led to much
consolidation throughout the industry
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Recycling Opportunities

• Meanwhile
• Exports aside, in 2004, there were more than 3633
  million pounds million of domestic scrap PET
  bottles that could have been recycled, but were
  not.
• One estimate claims that about 12 of water
  bottles are recycled, while 88 of plastic water
  bottles end up as garbage or litter (this study
  does not readily specify a particular bottle type
  or material)
• A similar report claims that at most, PET
  recycling rates are estimated at 23, when
  considered with other PET beverage containers.
• Industry sources put the PET recycling rate at 24
  to 26 percent, while the overall HDPE recycling
  rate which may be considered comparable to PET
  recycling rates, reached 28 percent.

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Recycling Opportunities

• It is safe to say that the overall PET recycling
  rate is below 30 percent.
• In 1995, PET recycling reached 39.7 percent.
• Over the past 15 years,. The number of beverage
  containers sold increased over 40 percent, while
  beverage container recycling rates declined by
  about one-third.
• PET plastic is generally only good for recycling
  once and usually for different products with
  different material requirements, such as carpet
  or clothing.
• Large, multi-gallon polycarbonate carboys, used
  in home and office delivery services, are
  re-usable 40-50 times many bottled water
  providers claim that their products are recycled
  into new products following life as a continually
  reused container.

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Recycling Opportunities

• Curbside Recycling
• Widespread
• Favored by bottled water industry
• Effectiveness depends on local resources and
  market for PET
• Bottle Bills
• Only three states with programs that extend to
  water bottles
• Favored by much of the environmental community
• Of debatable effectiveness
• Definite need for more recycling opportunities
• At points of use
• At public events

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Municipal Waste

• According to beverage industry data, in 2006, PET
  bottled water containers produced 827,000 tons of
  scrap PET.
• By weight, this amounts to 3/10 of one percent of
  all municipal solid waste generated in 2006 5.8
  percent of all plastic packaging produced and
  2.8 percent of all plastics entering the waste
  stream each year.
• Through improvements in packaging technology, the
  beverage industry in 2008 will be able to reduce,
  or lightweight by over 100 million pounds the
  amount of PET resin necessary to manufacture
  bottles.
• 827,000 tons equals 1.654 billion pounds,
  removing 100 million pounds from the equation
  still leaves 1.554 billion pounds of PET from
  water bottles in the waste stream.

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Municipal Waste

• The major bottlers and distributers (Nestle,
  Coke, Pepsi and others) are increasing their
  capacities to recover and reuse bottles.
• But
• An estimated 88 of plastic water bottles end up
  as garbage or litter.
• Landfilled water bottles can take up to 1,000
  years to degrade.
• Fortunately
• Due to their relative longevity and inert
  compositions, the bottles do not contribute to
  leachate or gaseous emissions from landfills.

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Environmental Impacts

• Specialized mineral waters fair very poorly
  against tap water in terms of the petroleum or
  natural gas used as a feedstock in bottles and
  the power necessary to produce the bottles and
  fill them with water the greenhouse gas
  emissions from that stem from production and
  transportation and other measures.
• Even municipal water that is filtered, bottled
  and transported to points of sale or use is 25 to
  50 percent higher in terms of overall
  environmental impact.
• The Container Recycling Institute estimates that
  producing PET, which is a petroleum or natural
  gas product, for bottles used 18 million barrels
  of crude oil equivalents in 2005, producing 800
  metric tons of carbon equivalent emissions.