Most people don’t realize some of the negative repercussions that happen when you constantly buy bottled water. Instead of giving tips on how to avoid purchasing bottled water, hopefully this will just deter you from buying another bottle and to save your money for other items in the future. These eye-opening facts about not only New Zealand, but worldwide usage of bottled water will hopefully help you to use your own water rather than buying it.

Primarily, New Zealand has done its best to be environmentally safe with other causes, however, we are still culprits when it comes to purchasing water. So here are some facts about New Zealand and bottled water:

-In one year, we use 168 plastic bottles each

-78% of plastic bottles are not recycled

-Up to 24% of bottled water comes directly from the tap

-We’ve spent 60.4 million dollars on bottled water at petrol stations and supermarkets

-Over three years, 31,130 plastic bottles were picked up from the beaches

If these facts aren’t staggering enough, the worldwide stats on bottled water usage will definitely surprise you:

-1500 bottles end up in landfills and the ocean, every second

-More than 100 million water bottles are used each day

-It actually takes 3-5 litres of water to make 1 plastic bottle, that’s 272 billion litres a year

-In a year, 2,500,000 tons of carbon dioxide was produced in the making of plastic bottles

-Every single square mile of the sea, approximately has 46,000 pieces of plastic floating in it

The best way to try and lower these incredibly high numbers is planning ahead. The majority of the time we are buying water because we forgot to bring one ourselves. If you have an empty bottle in your car then ask to fill it up, every time you refrain from buying water, it helps. Plus, water is fairly expensive, save yourself the extra dollars and buy something that doesn’t come straight out of the tap for free.