What exactly is the impact of water from plastic bottles?
A product that is still often sold and used today. But what exactly is the impact of plastic water bottles on people and the environment? A question that the Barcelona Health Institute has been looking into.
New Spanish research calculated the environmental cost of "plastic water" and compared it to tap water. From extracting the oil for plastic production to burning the plastic bottle at the waste plant. Something that is difficult to measure properly, as there are many different aspects involved. The results are perhaps not surprising: a bottle of water is worse for the environment than tap water.
"Spring water from plastic bottles causes much more damage to the environment and requires 3,500 times more material than water from the tap."
The problem does not seem to be so shocking in the Netherlands as the tap water in the Netherlands is good to drink. However, this is not true for all of Europe. In Barcelona, there is a relatively high level of trihalomethane in tap water, a substance that can cause bladder cancer. This is one of the reasons why the majority of the population drinks bottled water. However, this has disastrous consequences for the environment. And has a huge impact on the number of living species in the environment. In addition, the use of materials is hundreds of times greater with bottled water than with tap water. This has a significant effect on the amount of CO2 emissions.
The best solution to combat this plastic problem is to switch to using tap water. In addition, you can make a big impact by using reusable drinking cups/drink bottles. Do you also want to make a contribution? Then check out our range of reusable drinking bottles. With every purchase, 1000 times the content per Retulp bottle is donated to drinking water in developing countries. Thus Retulp strives to turn off the plastic tap and open the drinking water tap again.
