PLASTICS AND HEALTH IMPACTS - Plastics and Environmental Sustainability - page 342

high embedded energy of manufacture, reuse and recycling contribute to
economy in energy and material use in packaging.
An extreme example of a disproportionately expensive (in terms of energy)
package is bottled water. Global average per capita consumption of bottled
water is approximately 25 l, second only to that of carbonated beverages
(~31 l) (Rexam Consumer Packaging Report, 2011). It is a popular product
because of the convenience it delivers. 1 The energy cost of filtration,
disinfection,reverseosmosis,andfillingthebottlesoflocallyacquiredwater
(at times transported over short distances) is estimated to be only about
0.02 MJ/l. However, that of manufacturing the plastic bottle is over 4.0
MJ/l, even not counting the energy needed to transport it to the consumer
(Gleick and Cooley, 2009)! The package uses at least 200 times the energy
needed to produce the water it carries. Depending on transportation costs,
this value can be much higher (reaching ~400-500 times that for the
water). Environmental impact of treating (non-carbonated) water to be
bottled was recently estimated to be 90-1000 times that of making potable
tap water (Jungbluth, 2006). There is no significant additional health or
safety benefits afforded by the expensive bottled water compared to tap
water that uses only 0.005 MJ/l to produce! 2 In fact, some studies suggest
that endocrine disruptors (ED) (Sb and brominated flame retardants)
incorporated into the plastic raw materials during manufacture may leach
out into the bottled water (Andra et al., 2012; Fig. 8.1 ).
Figure 8.1 Bottled water sales in the United States is on the increase with
a per capita consumption of 29 US gallons in 2011.
Bottled water is generally safe for drinking purposes, but a recent study
of over 1900 samples (Marcussen et al., 2013) showed some to contain
potentially toxic ion concentrations (e.g., As) that exceed the EU or WHO