5-gallon water jugs are commonly found in businesses across the nation, but most people don’t realize the impact they have on the environment. Here are a few statistics to break it down for you:
- One plastic bottle takes 450 years to decompose.
- 46,000 pieces of plastic are currently floating on every square mile of the ocean.
- 72 billion gallons of water is required annually to make those plastic bottles.
You might have thought the water bottles in your office were harmless before reading these facts. But our experts have listed the damaging effects of choosing plastic bottled water systems over Pure Water dispensers.
Plastic bottles are usually buried or flushed into the ocean.
Globally, 300 million tons of plastic are produced on an annual basis. Approximately 18% of the new plastic being produced gets recycled or reused. The rest is buried or flushed into the ocean, which means practically every piece of plastic that has ever been made still exists in some shape or form, with the exception of small amounts that are incinerated.
Plastic bottles leave a huge carbon footprint.
In the United States, about 76 million barrels of oil are needed to manufacture, transport, store, and dispose of the plastic bottles used in a single year. That’s enough oil to fuel 4.3 million cars, and environmental experts estimate that it takes 1 gallon of oil to produce 10 gallons of bottled water. Eliminating bottled water reduces your company’s carbon footprint by 20 pounds for every 10 gallons of bottled water that you do not consume.
Plastic bottles are destroying the ocean and marine animals.
About 5% of the world’s population is settled in the United States, but our country creates about 30% of the world’s waste. That’s largely due to the 8 million tons of plastic that enter the oceans each year, which is the same as emptying a garbage truck of plastic into an ocean every minute.
Plastic makes up 80-90% of marine debris, and over 100,000 marine animals die every year from plastic entanglement and ingestion.
Plastic bottles end up in the food you eat.
Experts used to think microplastics stayed in a fish’s guts. But new research suggests the tiny particles migrate into its flesh. The study, which was Published In June In The Journal Environmental Science & Technology, estimates that Americans are eating, inhaling, and drinking at least 74,000 pieces of microplastic a year. But according to experts, that’s a “drastic underestimate.”
Why Pure Water is the eco-friendly choice.
Pure Water dispensers are plastic-free, so you’re automatically reducing your carbon footprint by installing one in your office. And each device comes with an energy efficiency mode, which helps the environment and the economy at large. Additionally, Pure Water dispensers provide an endless amount of purified water, which is much more environmentally friendly than using an endless cycle of plastic jugs.
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