Up until now most of my blogging has been related to gasoline consumption. However, last night I read an interesting article regarding the amount of petroleum used in the production of those unsightly water bottles and plastic bags littering our beautiful landscapes.
According to the Pacific Institute, Americans consumed 31.2 BILLION liters of bottled water in 2006. In order to support the bottling process for all of this water, producers use over 900,000 tons of plastic. The process for making all of this plastic (of which only a very small percentage is actually recycled) requires a combo of natural gas and petroleum. The bottom line is that to make all of this plastic for the bottles of tap water that we carry around uses about 17 million barrels of oil!
Another disturbing statistic concerns those plastic bags that stores like Wal Mart use to bag every individual item. America uses around 100 billion of these per year (about one per day per person). This equates to about 12 million barrels for production using this petroleum and natural gas method.
Just to keep things in perspective, the 29 million barrels used in the production of these plastics per year are only enough to fuel our gas consumption for about a day and a half, but once again, every little bit helps. Cutting back on our fascination with plastic bottles and bags will also benefit the environment greatly.
So go out, buy some of those eco-friendly bags, refuse bags at the counter, and for God's sake, cut it out with the bottled water. Its just tap water! Buy a filter and reuse the same bottle.
Think Petropinch positive!
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