Tangled World

For travellers in a global society

Water bottles

Water bottles account for huge amounts of waste and pollution throughout the world. Often, even those of us who are happy with tap water when at home, change over to bottled water when travelling.

Most plastic water bottles are made of PET (polyethylene terephthalate). To give an example of the scale of consumption of bottled water, apparently about 13 billion bottles were sold in the UK last year. Most of these are NOT recycled. And the UK is by no means the largest consumer.  The USA has that dubious honour, and the figures bandied around for them are that they consume 29 billion bottles, which equates to 17 million barrels of oil a year. This is enough to fuel over a million cars for a year. On barrel of oil (42 gallons)

Given that only a tiny proportion of plastic bottles are recycled, year on year we are sitting on an ever-growing pile of plastic bottle waste. Apart from being an eyesore, this is hugely damaging to our planet. And more evidence is being discovered all the time about just how damaging this is. Scientists have showed that, apart from the inevitable plastic bags and bottles, tiny plastic particles are in our seas and having a devastating effect on marine life.

As far as travellers are concerned there is often an additional issue. Many places we travel to simply don’t have the ability to deal with plastic waste safely or effectively at all. Surely we should not be travelling to any destination and causing problems?  If there is an alternative, we should take it.

So what IS the alternative to bottled water or drinks when you are travelling? 

1. A reusable drink bottle is the ideal solution in many instances. If the tap water is drinkable, simply fill up your own bottle.
2. Even in areas where the tap water can not be drunk, you can use a reusable bottle along with purification tablets or a filter.
3. You can ask for boiled water in many places.
4. If COLD water/drink is the issue, many hotels will be happy to provide chilled water to fill your bottle, or use hotel fridges to chill your bottle.
5. Drink local fruit juices if available.
6. Choose glass bottles over plastic. they can be reused and recycled, and they are far less polluting.