Possible

alternatives
What role can consumers play in reducing
the externalities of plastic water bottles
through their purchasing decisions and
behavior changes?

Reusable water
bottles
One ton of recycled plastic saves
5,774 Kwh of energy, 16.3 barrels of
oil, 98 million BTU's of energy, and
30 cubic yards of landfill space.
(Stanford University)

Tap water and

water fountains
Roughly twice as many plastic
particles (> 100 um) are found
within bottled water as compared
to tap water on average
(10.4 vs. 5.45 particles/L).

(Mason et al.)

Government
policies and
regulations
Only 12 percent of the 30 billion
plastic water bottles sold in the
United States in 2005 were recycled.

(Goldschein)
Producing a
FIJI water
bottle
(Belcher; Gubbels et al.;
Olson-Sawyer and Madel; Thomas)

1. Production of PET
resin from China
and shipped to Fiji

China faces water scarcity and

pollution and its manufacturing practices
may stop plastic resin production,
as seen during the coronavirus
outbreak. (Linton and Vakil;
Nadya Ivanova;
Zhao et al.)

2. 3.
Pellets melted After reheating,
and molded parisons are
into long blown into
tube (parisons) bottles

4. 5.
Bottles are Exported
filled from worldwide
"Fiji artesian" - taste the
water source "Fijian" water

Plastic bottles in America in 2006 took

about 17 million barrels of oil,
which is enough energy to fuel over
one million cars and trucks for a year.
(Pacific Institute)
 Plastic water bottle
and its externalities during production and consumption

Pollution's effect on wildlife

(Barrett et al.; Jambeck et al.) (Moore)

Single-use plastic are most likely

to end up in our ocean; from
Microplastics
5 to 13 million metric tons
are found in (G. M. A. News)

each year. The total amount of the organs

(u/JaredDadley)

microplastics sitting on the of 114

seafloor is estimated to be aquatic
at least 14 million tons. species.

Climate change
Plastic waste By 2005, plastic made up
at least 10% of solid waste
could account by mass in 58% (61 out of
for 5 - 10% of the 105) of countries with
world’s available data.
greenhouse World map where each of the 192 countries was
gas emissions shaded based on the estimated amount of
mismanaged plastic waste, in millions of Microplastics can also
metric tons, that was generated in 2010 by negatively affect wildlife
by 2050. populations living within 50 km of the coast.
health and the ocean's
The countries not included in the study were
shaded white on the map.
capacity to store
carbon.
(Jambeck et al.)
(Galloway et al.; Jambeck et al.; Zheng and Suh)

Human health
93% of the 259 bottled water samples tested
showed some form of microplastic contamination.
An average of 10.4 microplastic particles > 100 um
in size per liter of bottled water processed
were found. Additionally, plastic water bottles
contain chemical additives that are potentially
linked to a range of reproductive health problems.

(Cai, Zheng, et al.; Mason et al.; GRID-Arendal/Studio Atlantis)