Bottled Water Business

Bottled water is drinking water packaged in plastic or glass containers. The dominant form is water packaged in new Polyethylene terephthalate bottles and sold retail. Another method of packaging is in bigger high-density polyethylene plastic bottles, or polycarbonate synthetic bottles, often used with water coolers.

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

The global rate of consumption more than quadrupled between 1990 and 2005. Purified water is now the leading global seller, with U.S. companies dominating the field, and pure spring water, purified water and flavored water being the fastest-growing market segments.

The most important criticism 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 in the United States.

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

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

Bottled water does not mean a particular treatment process or better process than tap water or another water source. Some bottled water is simply tap water bottled and sold. In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration regulates bottled water whilst the EPA monitors the quality of tap water and has created 90 maximum pollutant levels for drinking water and 15 secondary maximum contaminant levels.

Bottled water processed by way of distillation or reverse osmosis lacks fluoride ions which are occasionally naturally there 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 investigation, in which an estimated 22% of brands were experienced, at least one sample contained chemical contaminants at levels exceeding stringent state health limits. Some of the contaminants found in the study may well pose health risks if consumed over time. In spite of this, the NRDC report declared that the majority of waters contained no traceable bacteria, and the levels of synthetic organic chemicals and inorganic chemicals of concern for which were tested were either below detection limits or well below all applicable standards. Meanwhile, a report by the DWRF found that of all the samples tested by NRDC, federal Food and Drug Administration or Environmental Protection Agency limits were allegedly exceeded only 4 times, two times for total coliforms and twice for fluorides.

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

Another report, made 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 scientists believe some of the contamination in the plastic containers may have come from the plastic containers themselves.

In the US, bottled water costs between $0.25 and $2 per bottle while tap water costs less than US$0.01. In 1999, according to a Natural Resources Defense Council study, U.S. consumers paid between 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, marketing, retailing, other expenses, and of course profit.

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

Bottled water has reduced amounts of copper, lead, 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.

Do you have what it requires to start your own bottled water business?