Bottled water ‘more harmful than UAE’s tap water

The UAE has one of the highest rates of bottled water consumption in the world with residents drinking an average of 250 litres of bottled water a year.

The UAE consumes 13 billion bags of plastic and approximately 450 billion plastic bottles per year, according to alarming statistics released by the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment.

The average person in the United States now consumes more than 35 gallons of bottled water per year, according to data from market research firm Beverage Marketing Corp. That’s about 270 bottles per person, and that number is only going to go up: By 2017, the average American is expected to drink almost 300 bottles annually.

The advent of plastic revolutionized every aspect of human existence; plastics can be found on the international space station, in medical equipment, in educational materials and in arguably every job and livelihood on the planet.  

While plastic has many valuable uses, we have become addicted to single-use or disposable plastic — with severe environmental consequences. Around the world, one million plastic drinking bottles are purchased every minute, while up to 5 trillion single-use plastic bags are used worldwide every year. In total, half of all plastic produced is designed to be used only once — and then thrown away.

Overview

Studies reporting the presence of microplastics in treated tap and bottled water have raised questions and concerns about the impact that microplastics in drinking-water might have on human health.