Think before you drink: The environmental cost of bottled water

The crew at InSinkErator have put together a great infographic recently regarding the consequence of buying and drinking bottled water! Firstly (and selfishly), you can save a whole bunch of money by getting a decent vessel to carry around with you and fill up from your tap or public water re-fill station for free, instead of paying 2000x the price.

A red-footed booby on Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean surrounded by bits of plastic. (Source: CSIRO, Britta Denise Hardesty)

Importantly, not all plastics can be recycled, and the impacts on our wildlife is becoming more and more apparent with the number of marine animals with plastic found in their stomachs becoming an increasing travesty, with almost all seabirds expected to have ingested plastic by 2050 at the current rate of pollution. A senate enquiry into marine plastics pollution is a starting point for deciding on how Australia will tackle this issue before this ugly situation worsens.

So check out the graphic below to get a real sense of the cost of indulging in that purchase of bottle water from your local servo/burger joint:

(Source: http://insinkerator.co.uk/uk/page/environmental-cost-of-bottled-water)