Questions & answers
How much water should we drink ?
Consuming enough water as part of the daily diet is an essential contribution to health and wellbeing.
As essential as it is, the human body cannot store water and it loses more or less two and a half litres of water a day. Water which is lost from the body needs to be replaced otherwise a person may become dehydrated.
To keep the body well hydrated, European scientific experts recommend that the average person should absorb daily 2,5 / 2 litres of water (male/female respectively) in conditions of moderate temperature and moderate physical activity. This water may come from various foods and beverages.
As foods contribute to one litre of water intake, adults should drinks 1,5/1 litre (male/female respectively) from beverages, in particular including drinking water, spring water or natural mineral water. The World Health Organisation recommends a daily consumption of water of two litres a day for an adult weighing 60 kilos.
Whilst hydration can be achieved by consuming different types of liquid, water has the advantages of containing no calories or additives.
What is the impact of abstracting water for bottling ?
The European water bottling industry manages the water resources in a sustainable way and its total abstraction volume is marginal (less than 0.02 % of total available resources).
Bottled waters typically consumed in Europe are natural mineral water and spring water. They are both naturally sourced waters from underground origin. These sources are replenished by rainwater or snow: in other words, they are a renewable resource.
The bottling companies manage the resource at a sustainable rate of abstraction to ensure that:
- resources are well protected and so can be used for generations to come;
- no harmful impact on the natural environment occurs or to neighbouring water users.
For each source of natural mineral water or spring water exploited, expert hydro-geological studies are carried out to understand the groundwater resource and to define sustainable abstraction volumes.
The EU Water Framework Directive requires Member States to manage water resources sustainably and volume limits may be applied to ensure this.
The catchment areas of naturally sourced waters (which can extend for over several hundred hectares) are also carefully monitored and managed to protect them from pollution.
In short, the bottled water sector does not deplete natural water resources.
What is the typical environmental footprint of bottled water ?
Bottled water has one of the lowest environmental footprint of all foods and beverages.
There seems to be consensus that there are two principal measures of environmental impact: green house gases (known as carbon footprint) and water usage in manufacture.
- Carbon footprint measurement is still in its infancy. Nonetheless, the consensus is that the carbon footprint of bottled water is very low and, based on typical daily behaviour, represents 1/1000th of the carbon footprint of an adult.
In fact, bottled water creates the lowest carbon footprint of any packaged beverage you can buy.
- Currently, there is no recognised EU standard for the measurement of a company’s water footprint. Nonetheless, the bottled water industry has for many years considered this a priority area for careful management.
Typically the production of 1 litre of bottled water requires less than one additional litre of water to produce, whereas the total typical daily food and drink consumption of an adult would require between 3,500 and 5 000 litres to prepare. So it can be argued that bottled water is an effective way to save water.
(see also: “What is the industry doing to reduce its footprint?”)
What is the industry doing to reduce its footprint ?
Bottled water has one of the lowest environmental footprint of all foods and beverages (see “What is the typical footprint of bottled water?”).
EFBW members are committed to sustainability and to reducing their environmental footprint further.
Their actions include:
• Packaging light weighting and use of eco-design for new packaging: a 1.5 litre PET bottle weighs 30 % less today than it did 20 years ago.
• Promoting the recycling of packaging and in particular PET, using recycled PET in packaging and participating in national recovery schemes (the EU recycling rate for PET is growing steadily and surpasses 90% in some countries).
• Replacing road transport by rail or by water wherever feasible, increasing truck payloads.
Water and carbon footprint measurement are still in their infancy but EFBW is currently working towards defining a common assessment methodology between all its members with a view to determining key improvement areas and reduction targets.
What is the difference between water from the tap and bottled water ?
Tap water and bottled water are completely different products.
Most bottled water sold in Europe is natural mineral water or spring water. Here are some distinctive features for each category:
• Origin: natural mineral water or spring water may only come from a defined and protected underground area and must be bottled at source (transport in tanks is not allowed). Provenance and traceability are therefore guaranteed. Water from the tap may come from various sources including underground water, surface water, waste water and will usually travel long distances through pipes.
• All materials used into a bottling plant must be such a quality that they do not modify the original characteristics of the water.
• Treatment: natural mineral waters and spring waters must be safe to drink at source in their natural state without disinfection. Tap water is generally chemically treated, disinfected and chlorinated to make it safe to drink.
• Consumer information: natural mineral waters have a stable mineral composition which has to be indicated on the label. Most spring waters also indicate their composition.
Consumers can therefore make an informed choice at the time of buying a bottle of water.
