Bottled Water Business

In 2011, the market is predicting to have a value of around $87,000 million, an increase of just over 40% since 2006. In 2011, the market is forecast to have a volume of about 175,000 million liters, an increase of over 50% since 2006.

The global rate of consumption more than four times between 1990 and 2005. Purified water is currently the leading global seller, with US companies dominating the field, and natural spring water, purified water and flavored water being the fastest-growing market segments.

The chief disapproval of bottled water concerns the bottles themselves. Individual use bottled water is usually packaged in Polyethylene terephthalate (PET). According to a NAPCOR study, PET water bottles account for 50% of all the PET bottles and containers collected by roadside recycling, and the recycling rate for water bottles is 23.4%, an increase over the 2006 rate of 20.1%. PET bottled water vessels make up one-third of 1 percent of the waste stream in the US.

The IBWA also reports that the average weight of a plastic bottle water was 13.83 grams in 2007, compared to 18.90g in 2000, representing a 26.7% decline. Pepsi-Co has since introduced a bottle weighing 10.9 grams and using 20 percent less plastic, which it says is the lightest bottle of its kind that is nationally distributed.

Around 50 billion bottles of water are consumed per annum in the U.S. and around 200 billion bottles globally.

Bottled water doesn't involve a special treatment process or improved process than tap water or another water source. Some bottled water is simply tap water bottled and sold. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration regulates bottled water whilst the EPA regulates the quality of tap water and has created 90 maximum pollutant levels for drinking water and 15 secondary maximum contaminant levels.

Bottled water processed with distillation or reverse osmosis lacks fluoride ions which are now and then naturally present in ground water. The drinking of
distilled water could conceivably raise the danger of tooth decay due to a deficit of this element.

According to a 1999 Natural Resources Defense Council report, in which an estimated 22 percent of brands were tested, at least one sample contained chemical contaminants at levels over stern state health limits. Some of the contaminants discovered in the study may perhaps pose health risks if consumed over a long period of time. Nonetheless, the Natural Resources Defense Council report declared that the majority of waters contained no traceable bacteria, and the levels of organic chemicals and inorganic chemicals of concern for which were tested were either below detection limits or well below all applicable standards. Meanwhile, a study by the Drinking Water Research Foundation found that of all the samples tested by Natural Resources Defense Council, federal FDA or EPA limits were allegedly exceeded only 4 times, two times for total coliforms and two times for fluorides.

The degree of total dissolved solids is sometimes 4 times higher in bottled mineral waters than in bottled tap water ones.

Another study, conducted by the Goethe University at Frankfurt found that a high percentage of the bottled water, contained in plastic containers were polluted with estrogenic chemicals. Though some of the bottled water contained in glass were found contaminated with chemicals as well, the researchers believe some of the pollution in the plastic containers may have come from the plastic containers themselves.

In the United States, bottled water costs between $0.25 and $2 per bottle at the same time as tap water costs less than US$0.01. In 1999, according to a NRDC report, United States customers paid around 240 and 10,000 times more per unit volume for bottled water than for tap water. Typically 90 percent or more of the cost paid by bottled water consumers goes to things other than the water itself—bottling, packaging, shipping, advertising, retailing, other expenses, and of course profit.

In some areas, tap water may contain added fluoride, which helps stop tooth decay and cavities, but may also produce negative toxicological side-effects.

Bottled water has reduced amounts of copper, Pb, and other metal contaminants since it does not run through the plumbing pipes where tap water is exposed to metal corrosion. However, this varies by the household and plumbing system.