The Container Recycling Institute estimates that 1.5 million barrels of oil are consumed every year, just to transport bottled water in the United States alone, That's enough oil to fuel 100,000 cars.

Bottled water consumes vast quantities of energy. There is growing concern at the environmental cost of fossil fuels used in the packaging and distribution of bottled water.
A study by a US environmental group, Earth Policy Institute, states that 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year.

Once the water is consumed, the bottles still pose an environmental risk. Often they are not recycled with about 65% of bottles ending up in landfill.

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Incinerating used bottles produces toxic by-products such as chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals. Buried water bottles can take up to 1,000 to biodegrade.

The Earth Policy Institute in Washington calculated that the bottled water industry in Britain generated about 30,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year in transport alone – equivalent to the annual energy consumption of 6,000 homes.

“Bottled water is a disaster, for several reasons,” Jeff Angel from the Total Environment Centre says. “First there's the issue of the sustainability of underground aquifers, from where much of the bottled water is drawn. And there's the carbon footprint. Water is heavy, and transporting it around the world uses a lot of energy. Bottled water is a classic example of the market ignoring the environmental cost of the product.”

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“Given how little we know about the sustainability of these aquifers, it's important we tread carefully,”
Averil Bones, the freshwater policy manager for WWF-Australia says.

WWF was one of the many groups to voice concern over recent plans for Diamantina Shire Council, in south east Queensland to bottle and sell water drawn from the Great Artesian Basin. Already under pressure from agriculture and mining, the basin is thought to take thousands of years   to replenish, and is often referred to as “dinosaur water”.

“When aquifers are under pressure from a variety of interest, sucking water out of them and bottling it for a quick buck is probably not a good idea,” Bones says.