Waste Prevention and Reuse

Drinking Water
A Comparison of Bottled and Tap Water Using Life Cycle Analysis

State law establishes a hierarchy of preferred methods for managing wastes. Recycling is preferable to disposal, but waste prevention (the “reduce, reuse” part of “reduce, reuse, recycle”) is even more preferred. While Oregon has made excellent strides at increasing recycling, progress at prevention has been more elusive.

Drinking water provides an opportunity to examine the “reduce, reuse, recycle” hierarchy in more detail. Drinking from the tap reduces waste in the first place. 5-gallon containers from water delivery services are typically reused. Single-use bottles can be recycled or disposed of.

DEQ has completed a study that compares a wide range of environmental impacts (including greenhouse gas emissions) of drinking water from the tap, 5-gallon reusables, and single-use bottles. It compares the environmental impacts of tap water (“reduce”) against the impacts of bottled water (“recycle” and “dispose”). The study confirms that while recycling bottles is environmentally preferable to disposing of them, buying bottled water and recycling the bottles is not the best environmental choice. Drinking water from the tap (waste prevention) typically has substantially lower impacts in most categories of environmental impact.

Other highlights of the study include the following:

• For water that is bottled and consumed within Oregon, the large majority of environmental impacts are typically from producing the plastic resin used to make the bottle.
• If the bottle comes from across the country or the world, most impacts increase by a factor of 3 or more.
• End-of-life (disposal) related impacts are very small, with the possible exception of biodegradable plastic bottles. If they decompose in a landfill, the resulting methane is a potent greenhouse gas. Even when landfills capture some of the gas to produce energy, the remaining gas escapes and contributes to climate change.
• If you choose to drink bottled water, recycling the bottle can have moderate environmental benefits. These benefits, however, are still overshadowed by the negative impacts of making and transporting the bottle in the first place.
• For tap water, the frequency of washing your container in a dishwasher influences the results more than any other factor.

Reports

• News release
• Life Cycle Assessment of Drinking Water Systems: Bottled Water, Tap Water, and Home/Office Delivery Water Final Report
  • Full Report PDF (3MB)
    This document is approximately 500 pages.
  • Executive Summary only PDF
  • Report Only PDF (1.4MB)
    This document does not include the appendices and is approximately 270 pages.
  • Appendices only PDF (1.1MB)
    This document is approximately 230 pages.
• Supplemental Report: Comparing Prevention, Recycling, and Disposal PDF
  This supplemental report uses the results of the Life Cycle Assessment to compare the environmental impacts of prevention, recycling, and disposal.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Results
• Background and methodology

Additional Resources

• Oregon Department of Human Services Drinking Water Program
• Oregon DEQ’s Water Quality Drinking Water Protection Program
• Natural Resources Defense Council

[print version]