Carbon Impact of one Single-use Plastic Bottle

Sometimes we don’t think about how what we put into our bodies and how it affects the world around us and our near and far future.

An average household drinking bottled water (800 bottles per year) creates 350lbs. of CO2 or drives 368 miles with a car. And that’s JUST for bottled water. (Source)

‘The manufacture of one pound of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic can produce up to three pounds of carbon dioxide. Processing plastic resins and transporting plastic bottles contribute to a bottle’s carbon footprint in a major way. Estimates show that one 500-milliliter (0.53 quarts) plastic bottle of water has a total carbon footprint equal to 82.8 grams (about 3 ounces) of carbon dioxide.’ Source

And it takes a lot of energy, transportation and oil extraction to make a bottle-

• Transportation energy expenditures can represent as much as 29 percent of a plastic bottle’s carbon footprint.

 

• The energy to produce PET resin represents about 30 percent of the total carbon footprint of a 500-milliliter plastic bottle.

 

• The total of these processes can represent 33 percent of a plastic bottle’s carbon footprint.

 

Want more science?

Check out this resource for calculating more scenarios regarding bottled water and carbon dioxide TAPP Water