Environmental Impact of Bottle Water Coolers

A water cooler is more than just an office convenience , it is a necessity.  We wouldn't advocate getting rid of them (for obvious reasons!) but have you thought about the impact of having a bottle fed water cooler?

Firstly, a factory has to be built which can manufacture the plastic bottles, made from petrochemicals.

Then your supplier treats the water. And where do they get that from? Best not ask Dasani! Read the BBC article on Coca-Cola's purified tap water here.)

Then the bottles are loaded up on to a fleet of lorries which then drive around producing more CO² and blocking up the roads. Increased congestion will, in time, lead to more road building.

Think of the weight of that delivery.  Thousands of litres of water being shipped around often just feet above an existing, designed for purpose infrastructure: The UK Water Mains. Ironic isn't it?

Extra load, means extra fuel consumption and, again, greater pollution.

All this, and the water has only just got to you.  But the journey's not over.  Your empties are taken away and the bottles are either cleaned or recycled.  Now lets be clear, recycling is good, but it is the lesser of two evils.  It is far better not to have the material in circulation at all.

Recycling bottles doesn't necessarilly mean less bottle production.  A lot of the plastic is too "sub-standard" for this purpose so it is made into other products, such as fenceposts, which again, start their own distribution chain.

So what does common sense dictate?  Wherever possible, use the existing infrastructure to get your water in. Use the pipe and not the lorry.