CARBON AND WATER FOOTPRINTS

I’ve commented on footprint comparisons before, but now return to the topic because new figures have been issued by the European Federation of Bottled Waters. The first set offers indicative measures for the carbon footprint of various non-alcoholic drinks in grams of CO2 per litre, as sourced from Danone.

Plain still water	194
Carbonated soft drink	322
Fruit drink	908
Energy drink	1069

The second set provides water footprints for different beverages in litres of water per litre of product, as sourced from waterfootprint.org

Bottled water under	2
Tea	120
Beer	300
Orange juice	850
Wine	960
Milk	1000
Coffee	1120

The EFBW also reports that:

• PET bottle recycling across Europe has increased from 35% in 2005 to 48% in 2009.
• PET bottle weights have reduced by 17% since 1996.

It is reassuring that bottled water is coming up with robust answers to more of the environmental questions being asked.