43% less packaging in 8 years

This is really an extraordinary achievement. It’s not as if packaging was first invented in 2007. Environmental concerns and lightweighting were well under way long before then.

So a reduction of 42.8% across all materials – glass and HDPE as well as PET – by 2015 is remarkable.

The average amount of bottle material used for packaged water in North America has fallen from just over 34 grams per litre to 19.5 grams per litre.

Among other findings of the new Quantis study:

• Bottled water accounted for 0.11% of all US greenhouse gas emissions in 2015.

• Bottled water’s US carbon footprint is 183 grams of CO2 equivalent per litre, compared with 539 grams per litre for carbonated soft drinks.

• Non-renewable energy usage for bottled water is 0.3% of the US total.

• Solid waste from bottled water is 0.11% of the US municipal total.

• Bottled water requires just 0.32 extra litres of water in production for each litre in a bottle.