TapThis! Bottled water vs.

Tap water

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Plastic bottles in the U.S.

Sold

Recycled

Wasted

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U.S. bottled water consumption

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Volume and Producer Revenues

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Global bottled water consumption

0-24

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Liters per Capita

�ere is massive controversy over the use of plastic PET water bottles and how harmful they are to our planet. �e global bottled water consumption has increased dramatically over the past few decades. Consumption quadrupled between 1990 and 2005. �e world map to the right shows how much liters per capita of bottled water each region drank according to data in 2005. �e main controversy about bottled water is that people think it is safer to drink store bought, mass manufactured, unrecyclable water, than the water that comes out of your own faucet or shower. Because bottled water and tap water are tested di�erently, people tend to think tap water isn’t tested properly, which is a huge misconception. Bottled water is also very cost e�ective and wastes a lot of energy that creates harmful toxins for the environment. By looking at the world map to the right, we can see that more developed countries drink a lot more liters per capita than most other countries, especially the third world countries, most of which are in Africa.

Looking onward, this poster will examine bottled water in the U.S. by consumption per capita and compare how many bottles are sold and wasted. It will disperse any myths about bottled water that many people have as reasons to not drinking tap water. Also we will examine the price of bottled to tap water and how much more cost e�ective buying tap water can be.

�e U.S. is the largest consumer of bottled water in the world. At least half of all Americans consume bottled water on a daily basis. We use so much water for daily needs such as showering, dishes, car washing, and more. Americans use approximately 400 billion gallons of water a day. �e graph to the right shows us by gallons per capita, how much water the U.S. has consumed from 2001 to 2011. As we can see, the numbers are not decreasing as much as we’d hope. It actually appears to be rising still. Hopefully people will start to realize that bottles are harmful to the earth and that there are much greener alternatives to help save our planet.

1. SF Marina Green2. Yerba Buena Gardens3. UCSF Mission Bay 4. UCSF Medical Center5. California Academy of Sciences6. Golden Gate Park, Chain of Lake7. San Francisco Zoo8. Lake Merced Boat House9. Crocker Amazon Park

In California

Bottled waterproduces up to

of plastic wasteworldwide per

year.

milliont o n s

tap water costs

o f a centper gallon.

1 tenth

1.5

San Franciscorefillable tap stations

States that require deposits on bottled water

Substitute & Safety

Taste

Other

Reasons fornot drinking

Safety Substitute

Tap Water

Bottled Water

Filtered TapTap

Cost of water Per Gallon

Bottled water around the globe

Water in the U.S.

Price of water

Tap vs. BottledYes No

Required to notify public of contamination

5 years of test records required

Maximum Containment Level Standards

Federal oversight of state regulations

Certified Labratory Testing

Provide consumer confidence reports

10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

GasolineTap Water

Crystal GeyserSmart Water

FijiIce AgeIceland

Earth H20New Zealand

Evian

Dollars

Cost per gallon

Nick Baldassini DAI 523 Information Design II San Francisco State University Fall 2012Pino Trogu

Because we drink so many water bottles, wasted becomes a huge issue when trying to recycle plastic. Taking a look at the graph to the right, we can see the numbers for water bottles sold, wasted, and recycled keeps increasing, meaning that more and more bottles are bought and more are wasted. �e recycling rate is increasing but very slowly. About 80% of all water bottles sold end up in land�lls or the ocean. If everyone just switched to reusable water bottles, they could be saving an insane amount of money and also could be at less of a risk for health problems, as it has shown that plastic can leach harmful toxins into the water that may lead to cancer or more. Even though the number of bottles getting recycled is increasing slowly, the number of wasted bottles also keeps increasing. �e main number that needs decreasing is how many bottles are sold. If everyone bought less bottles in the �rst place, the number getting recycled would be less but also the number of bottles wasted would be less.

When we take a look at all the companies who provide bottled water to us and look at how much they spend per gallon, the results are dramatic. When we look below to the graph of cost per gallon, we can see that Evian, a French brand of mineral water, pays almost 9 dollars a gallon. �is water bottle it thought of as being classy and bought mainly by celebrities or those of higher class. �e most interesting data here is the price of gasoline. It only costs about 6 dollars a gallon. When gasoline costs cheaper than bottled water, I think we have a problem. Tap water is even included on this chart and its so cheap that is almost invisible, and everyone has access to tap water.

With the graph above, we can see the volume and produce revenues from 1991 – 2006. Once again the graph doesn’t show signi�cant change in numbers except for the fact that it is all slowly increasing. �e more gallons bought, the more revenue made. Since people keep buying more and more bottles, companies must buy more gallons of water, in turn they will make more revenue. �e only solution to end this horrible cycle is for the consumer; you and me, to stop buying bottled water all together. 17 million barrels of oil are used each year to produce such amounts of bottled water.

In conclusion, this serious problem can be easily solved by every one of us if we all just do our part. �e U.S. map above shows states that require a deposit on buying water bottles. �is will hopefully take over every single state and hopefully they will be taxed even more. Here in San Francisco we are lucky to have such clean water from Hetch Hetchy that is perfectly clean to drink and can be found in 9 di�erent locations around the city. If we all just carried a reusable water bottle, plastic bottles could become a thing in the past and our environment would be a whole lot cleaner.

NORTHBEACH

FISHERMANSWHARF

MARINA

PACIFICHEIGHTS

WESTERNADDITION

LAURELHEIGHTS

RICHMOND

SUNSET

OCEANVIEW

INGLESIDE

PARKMERCED

WESTPORTAL

SEACLIFF

HAYESVALLEY

FILLMORE

HAIGHT-ASHBURY

CASTRO

NOEVALLEY

MISSION

BERNALHEIGHTS

DIAMONDHEIGHTS

GLEN

ST. FRANCISWOOD

POTREROHILL

SOUTH OFMARKET

FINANCIALDISTRICT

CHINATOWN

RUSSIANHILL

HILL

EXCELSIOR

VISITACIONVALLEY

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HUNTERSPOINT

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Water Bottle Poster.pdf 1 12/18/12 2:39 PM

Resources                 Nick  Baldassini      

 

http://www.napcor.com/PET/whatispet.html

http://www.plasticsrecycling.org/

http://water.epa.gov/drink/

http://www.sfwater.org/index.aspx

http://www.napcor.com/pdf/NAPCOR_2011RateReport.pdf

http://www.napcor.com/pdf/2010_Report.pdf

http://sfwater.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentID=2411

http://water.epa.gov/drink/info/lead/index.cfm

http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/rulesregs/sdwa/lcr/fs_consumer.cfm

http://www.americanchemistry.com/Jobs/EconomicStatistics/Plastics-Statistics/Major-Market-Chart.pdf

http://www.americanchemistry.com/Jobs/EconomicStatistics/Plastics-Statistics/Total-Sales-Captive-Use-by-Major-Market.pdfhttp://www.beveragemarketing.com/?

section=pressreleases

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2009-04-16-waterbottledeposits_N.htm