Because the manufacturing
and transportation of disposable water bottle
s requires
petroleum, a non-renewable resource, the single-serve bottled water industry
has come under pressure from concerned consumers. The Pacific Institute
calculates that it required about 17 million barrels of oil to make the
disposable plastic bottles for single-serve water that Americans consumed in
2006. To sustain the consumptive use of products relying on plastic components
and level of manufactured demand for plastic water bottles,the end result is
shortages of fossil fuels. Furthermore, it means not only a shortage of the raw
materials to make plastics, but also a shortage of the energy required to fuel
their production.