DEQ study confirms “reduce first, then recycle” environmental ethic

A study commissioned by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to assess drinking water delivery systems helps bolster the principle that “reducing first, then recycling” is the best environmental path to follow.

The study entitled Life Cycle Assessment of Drinking Water Delivery Systems: Bottled Water, Tap Water and Home/Office Delivery Water, concludes that drinking tap water in refillable bottles is the more environmentally-friendly action when compared to other forms of obtaining and consuming drinking water such as buying water in bottles and recycling them.

DEQ commissioned the study to provide information that consumers and producers can use to voluntarily reduce their environmental impacts.

“For consumers, the most important message is: reduce first, then recycle,” says David Allaway, DEQ solid waste senior policy analyst.

“Drinking tap water and recycling single-use bottles are equally effective ways of keeping waste out of landfills and incinerators, but DEQ’s study shows that most effects on the environment from bottled water occur from manufacturing and transportation, not disposal.”

“Recycling single-use water bottles, at best, offers only moderate reductions in environmental impacts.”

The DEQ study compares 48 different scenarios and examines a range of environmental effects across the entire life cycle of single-use, five-gallon reusable and tap water delivery methods.

The “life cycle” includes extracting raw materials from the earth (such as coal, oil and minerals), producing energy resources and packaging materials, water treatment, bottling, transportation, consumer transport, dishwasher use, and disposal, recycling and composting.