Earth Day 2024: water technology and the war on single-use plastics
This year’s Earth Day focusses on Planet Vs. Plastics and experts are calling for a 60% reduction of plastic production by the year 2040. One of the three key strategies outlined to achieve this goal is the rapid phasing out of single-use plastics – one of the largest being water bottles.
Sadly, far from shrinking, the bottled water market has in fact grown more than 70% in the past decade and, shockingly, more than 1 million bottles of water are still sold, every minute, around the world. What’s more, as little as 12% of plastic bottles are recycled after use, so the vast majority end up in landfill or part of the 8 million tons of plastic that ends up in our oceans every year.
So, why is the bottled water industry still growing? You’ve guessed it. Water scarcity. And there are two huge reasons why this is problematic.
The main source of bottled water is groundwater – which is already critically low in some parts of the world due to over-extraction and climate change.
According to the Water Footprint Network, it takes 5.3 litres of water to produce a single-use plastic water bottle. Which still needs to be filled with water.
But don’t take our word for it. A United Nations University study of 109 countries recently concluded that growth of the bottled water industry is hindering efforts to provide reliable drinking water for all. And, while bottled water is often presented as a stop-gap solution, more often it becomes a long-term substitute for a reliable tap-water supply.
We believe water innovation is key to ending single use plastic water bottles.
Water technologies, like ours, transform unusable water sources – like salty water or industrial wastewater – into useful water sources. When we help industries to reduce their water intake, and/or reuse their wastewater, that makes more water available to people and communities living with water scarcity, thus reducing the depletion of groundwater sources and the reliance on water that is distributed in single-use plastic bottles. Let’s make quality water available where it is needed and reduce our reliance on single use storage containers.
Ionic Solutions’ technology can do this in the greenest, most sustainable way possible, minimizing impact on the environment and climate change.
