They're convenient, cheap, hassle-free and readily available...STOP! There are NO good excuses for using disposable plastic water bottles. They are terrible for the environment, unsustainable and most end up in places pictured below where they will stay there for hundreds of years. For the past two years, my workplace has been ordering flats of bottled water (despite our tap water being safe to drink) and just recently they finally listened to my complaint and made the switch to a filtration system.
But Water Bottles are Recyclable
Not really, each water bottle requires about 1/4 of its volume in oil to produce. Significantly more water is required to make the bottle than what it contains, and most water bottles aren't actually recycled. They end up in landfills or even worse, floating around in the ocean or discarded somewhere random. These bottles take 1000s of years to biodegrade, they cannot safely be reused because of the chemicals they contain and the recycling process is energy-intensive.
The above infographic applies just to the USA, where 38 BILLION water bottles are discarded every year. Needless to say, I wasn't happy when my office was using about 50 of them per day, who knows how much were being used corporatewide-likely thousands. I usually just filled my cup up from the sink (Toronto tap water could be safer than water bottle water) and would complain all the time but no one really seemed to care.
Finally, No More Water Bottles!
It probably wasn't my complaint on the annual surveys or to the office manager, it was likely due to the expense. Having bottled water delivered with office supplies worked out to around 33 cents per bottle, the equivalent amount of filtered water costs around 2 cents. Since the installation and the unit is around $4-500 that means that in about a month the thing will pay for itself ($0.33-$0.02)(50)(30) =465$. My employer was wasting money and had no excuse not to change to this system earlier.
Better Late Than Never!
If your office or family is still purchasing disposable bottles, please make the switch. It's horrible for the environment and you are wasting money. I hope that 2020 is the year where they start taxing single-use plastics so their true cost is reflected in the price.