BOTTLED WATER INDUSTRY CITES FACT, REFUTES
FICTION IN SUPPORTING RECYCLING

 

Bottled water brands comprise only 3/10ths of one percent of all discarded bottles, while polyethylene terephthalate (PET) containers, the choice of many bottled water marketers, are among the most recycled packages, finding new usage in a variety of products from CD's to furniture, carpeting and notebooks.

Meanwhile, the number of local curbside recycling programs in the U.S. has grown tenfold over the past two decades, with more municipalities and counties continuing to discover such programs as revenue enhancers.

In 2006 alone, 1.272 billion lbs. of PET bottles were collected for recycling, according to
the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR).

“The bottled water industry is also one of the original recyclers,” said Joe Doss, President of the
International Bottled Water Association (IBWA), a founding member of the National Recycling
Partnership. He added that his members have been “at the forefront of this issue, using containers
that are 100 percent recyclable and made from increasingly lighter weight plastics.”

(Glass bottles are also aggressively sought by recyclers for their own valuable second-life conversions).

For the record, according to the IBWA, literally millions of bottled water units have been
donated by industry members in times of crisis as safe, potable resources where tap
water has been undeliverable or contaminated.

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