Bottled Water: A Great Use of Natural Resources!

The United Nations is a diligent tracker of water usage. It reports the following water footprints of many common products: 

•    688 gallons of water are required to produce one pound of finished cotton

•    1 pound of soybeans needs 224 gallons of water

•    1 pound of chicken comes to our tables after the consumption of 287 gallons of water

•    1 glass of beer requires 19.9 gallons of water

•    1 glass of wine demands 31.7 gallons.

And bottled water? Being pure water and nothing else, the contents of bottled water is the most efficient use of water on earth for hydration, in a far closer ratio with the resource than other food and beverage products. Granted, water bottlers use additional water for maintenance and processing, but inside the container, be it single-serve or 5-gallon in size, the water required for ideal human hydration and refreshment ranges from a ratio of 1.5 to 1.0, in some cases, to 2.0 to 1.0 in others—literally miniscule compared to anything and everything else you can drink.