Reducing Bottled Water Consumption: Why at BMP We Said No More to Plastic
In 2015, an article in The Guardian titled “The madness of drinking bottled water shipped halfway round the world” strongly denounced the absurdity of global bottled water consumption. This made us reflect and investigate Italian data: the picture that emerged is alarming.
According to Censis, Italy is the leading European country in per capita bottled water consumption, and the second in the world. Every day, we produce 25 million bottles, totaling 280,000 tons of PET per year. Only 25% is properly recycled. The rest? Burned, buried, or lost at sea.
Reducing bottled water consumption is no longer just an ethical choice but a concrete necessity. PET comes 90% from fossil sources like oil, while 80% of bottle transport is by road, with a heavy environmental impact: every truck emits about 1,300 kg of CO₂ every 1,000 km.
Another striking fact was that only 1% of the cost of bottled water actually relates to the water itself. 60% comes from transport. And to produce one liter of water… two liters are needed.
The Sustainable Alternative: Water Dispensers in the Workplace
We live in a city with extremely high-quality groundwater. So, in 2019, we said goodbye to bottled mineral water. At BMP, we installed dispensers that provide cold, room temperature, or sparkling water. Zero plastic, zero transport, maximum convenience.
Reducing bottled water consumption is only a small step, but a concrete one. A daily gesture that, multiplied by every employee and every working day, represents a significant environmental saving.
Discover also: How BMP Reduced Paper Use in the Company
Environmental data source: ISPRA – Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research
BMP staff