FROM

LINEAR TO CIRCULAR

The Current Linear Economy of Bottled Water Production
I decided write a report on bottled water as it is the fastest growing beverage in the
world with no signs of demands for it abating in the near future. According to a new
market report published by Transparency Market Research. Global bottled water
market was valued at $157.27 billion in 2013, which is expected to reach $279.65
billion by 2020, growing at a rate of 8.7% from 2014 to 2020. By volume, global bottled
water market is expected to grow at a rate of 8.3% during the forecast period from
2014 to 2020 to reach a market size of 465.12 billion litres by 2020. In 2013, volume of
the market was 267.91.billion litres. (TMR, Global Bottled Water Market Report, 2015
in www.transparencymarketresearch.com/article/bottled-water-market.htm, -
Accessed on 13/4/15).

The global bottled water market is dominated by Asia, Europe, Mexico and the US,
which account for over 60% of the market value with strong growth in India. According
to BMC (Beverage Marketing Corporation) over the past five years alone, bottled water
has increased its share of stomach of the overall beverage market from 14.4 percent in
2009, to 17.8 percent in 2014. It is predicted that by 2016 bottled water will be the
number one packaged beverage sold in the United States. (IBWA, Bottled Water Sales
and Consumption, 2014 in www.bottledwater.org - Accessed on 13/4/15. The demand
is down to rising concern for health and wellbeing including the clever marketing
campaigns and bottle designs.

With this sustained demand for bottled water it is imperative that the production
process for bottled water should be modeled on the circular economy to ensure that the
materials and resources required for the production be re-used and replenished.
Bottled water is produced by taking water from a source such as streams, rivers and the
local water supply. This is then processed (purification or flavoured, added minerals)
and then packaged into plastic containers (PET). The packaged water is transported
either via road, air or water to various geographical locations to a distribution facility
and/or retailer where consumers can buy the packaged water. Once the content has
been emptied the bottle is usually discarded in the trash with majority ending up in a
landfill or incinerator.


Figure 1: Bottled water production process (Source: https://www.dkit.ie)
The production process of bottled water requires energy to make the PET packaging, to
transport the water from water source and the finished product to the point of sale. Also
energy is required to chill and recycle the packaging. Figure 1 below shows the current
linear production process for bottled water with the energy requirement.

Figure 1: Energy requirement for production of bottled water.
(Source http://iopscience.iop.org)

In the production of the plastic bottles polyethylene terephthalate (PET) used in

most single use water bottles the two primary raw materials are terephthalic
acid (PTA) and mono-ethylene glycol (MEG), chemicals derived from fossil fuel.
The amount of energy required to produce PET bottles is approximately 3.4
mega joules to manufacture the packaging, bottle and cap of a one-litre plastic
bottle (Source: Pacific Institute).
The 31.2 billion litres of bottled water consumed annually in the United States,
uses more than 17 million barrels of oil to produce and generated 2.5 million
tonnes of CO2 (Pacific Institute, 2007, in pacinst.org/publication/bottled-waterand-energy-a-fact-sheet accessed 11/04/15).
The water used during the production is taken from natural source, which is not
replenished, or from the local water supply.
Twice, as much water is used in production of bottled water than what is
contained in the bottle (Pacific Institute estimate).
Raw materials and the finished products are transported using container ships,
trucks or cars. Fossil fuel based transportation produces GHG emissions. Also
some of the finished products are transported internationally (e.g. Fiji water
from Fiji, San Pellegrino from Italy).

PET is recognized globally as safe recyclable packaging material. Most single service
bottled water are made from PET. According to in 2014 it was reported that only about
52% of PET is recycled in Europe (source: PETCORE) and 31% in the U.S (NACOR) this
is an increase from 48.4% and 28.0% in 2009. This means that the remaining 49% and
69% respectively end up in either landfill or incinerators.

Discarding plastic bottles in landfill is harmful to the environment and creates
externalities (such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions) during the incineration of PET
bottles, also some end up in the oceans, according to National Geographic as much as 10
percent of the 260 million tons of plastic produced annually ends up in the oceans,
much of it in trash vortices like the Pacific garbage patch and much of the plastic has
broken down into tiny pieces that saturate the water and become a toxic part of the
marine ecosystem. Enormous numbers of fish and birds die after eating tiny plastic
morsels mistaken for prey. (Brian Handwerk, 2011 in
news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/07/090731-ocean-trash-pacific.html,
accessed 10/04/2015)

The leakages of the current production of bottled water means ever increased pressure
on finite resources such as fossil fuel required as virgin raw material for the production
of PET to meet the demands for the production of bottled water. Which in turn creates
externalities such as (such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions) means there is an
increase in transportation of raw materials and finished product to the retailers and we
just become stuck in the vicious circle.
Re-designed Circular Economy of Bottled Water Production
One option to make the production of bottled water circular is just to ban the sale of
single use bottled water, this may seem extreme but it has been done in various
countries. Bundanoon in New South Wales, Australia was the first community to ban
sale of bottled water in 2009. Its businesses now sell reusable bottles and chilled
filtered tap water, free filtered water stations, and water fountains are provided for the

public, and for local primary school children. Other establishments, towns and cities
have followed suit with San Francisco being the first American city to ban the sale on
city owned properties and the town of Concord. Massachusetts banned the sale of
drinking water in all water bottles of 1 litre and smaller except during city emergencies.
However the reality of the situation is that it may not be possible for a worldwide ban of
bottled water as it is a necessity in some countries in Africa and some part of Asia where
there is lack of access to clean drinking water. Adopting and incorporating circular
economy principles within the production process of bottled water will significantly
reduce the externalities created during the process. Below is the redesigned circular
economy model.

Figure 3: Redesigned Circular economy model

Waste = food is a principle that holds true in the redesigned model. PET is 100%
recyclable with the recycled PET (rPET) requiring less energy to be produced
than virgin PET. In the shorter term increasing collection and recycling of PET
will reduce the need for virgin raw material. In the longer term replacing fossils
switching to a 100% bio-based PET.
Circular economy encourages diversity with multiple revenue streams. This will
be achieved in the redesigned model such as new revenue stream from refill
stations, water dispensers for offices and homes, production of higher quality
bottles that can be reused continuously. Recycled PET can also be used in other
applications such as fibre for clothes or for other packaging applications such as
shampoo, detergent, soap etc.
Re-design of packaging material (PET, caps and label) to use less material
through system thinking can lead to significant savings in the use of raw
materials. Nestl Water, for example, Nestle continuously reduced their total
PET packaging weight from 2005 to 2010. By 2010, they were using an average

of 41.7 grams of packaging materials per litre 19% less than in 2005 by
making the bottle, caps and labels lighter without compromising quality. (EMF
Report 3, 2014, Page 55)
Using renewable energy such as solar power during the production of the PET
and packaging of the bottled water will reduce GHG emissions from the
manufacturing plant. The transport fleet could also be run on renewable energy
such as electric vehicles or deploying a more fuel-efficient fleet for delivery and
collection of the used PET.

To encourage and increase the re-use and recycling of single use PET an incentive such
as a discount will be given to people that return their used bottles when they purchase
new bottled water. So it will be like an exchange. Alternatively consumers can be asked
to pay a deposit when they buy their first pack and only get back the deposit on return
of the empty bottles. A fee can be levied against consumers buying single use bottles to
discourage the practice.

Below is a comparison of the current linear model and the proposed circular model.

Linear Model
Circular Model
Use of fossil fuels to make new PET to be
Using renewable bio-based resources
used for packaging for bottled water.
reduces fossil fuel consumption. Increased
use of recycled PET (rPET) as raw material
for the production of new packaging will
reduce the use of fossil fuels for PET.
Transportation of the finished products to By reducing the amount of miles that
different parts of world using fossil fuels
packaged bottles have to travel either by
again increased externalities such as GHG the creation of refill stations at retail
emissions.
outlets will increase the reuse of bottles
and reduce the miles travelled to deliver
packaged bottles.
It takes three times the volume of water
Reusing and recycling of bottles will
contained in a bottle to make that bottle.
reduce the amount of water used in the
manufacturing process.
Amount of energy required to produce
Energy required to product a rPET is
PET is approximately 3.4 megajoules.
about one third that of virgin PET
Discarding of used bottles into landfills or By increasing the quality of the PET bottles
sending to the incinerator.
for Significantly increasing the number of
recycled PET will reduce the number that
end up in landfill or incinerator. This can
be achieved by various methods. The
provision of convenient recycle stations
around places such as stores, residential
estates, business parks.
Table 1: Comparison of Linear and Circular model

Transitioning from current linear to circular economy.
The main barrier to shifting from the current linear to circular using bio-based plastic
packaging is cost: According to a report by Rabobank Bio-MEG (a component of PET) is
400-500 per tonne more expensive then fossil MEG, lifting the cost of a bio-based

bottle from 0.04-0.05. Capital investments for PEF (PET alternative) will be in the
order of 1,300 to 1,400 per tonne of installed capacity, compared with conventional
scale PET capacity at 300-400 per tonne. At present the additional costs of bio- based
plastic packaging, are seen as important consumer branding initiatives by beverages
companies. Higher carbon prices and increased labeling on packaging materials, and
possibly regulation, would help bridge the cost gap. (Pathways to Circular Economy,
2014 in https://www.rabobank.com/en/images/Pathways-to-a-circular-economy.pdf
Accessed 11/04/2014. Providing financial support in commercialisation of bioplastic
will help increase its adoption.

Another challenge is changing consumer behaviour Increasing consumer awareness of
the problems with current plastic consumption and garnering support for bio-based
plastics will increase the recycling of PET. If people are willing to pay for the bio-based
plastics this will lead to an increase in demand which will have an impact on pricing.
Incentivising consumers and legislation could also help increase recycling rates through
stricter container deposit schemes, more coordinated efforts on a national rather than
local levels, or more stimulatory policies paying consumers to recycle plastics.

Continuous innovation is important, as technology improvements are needed to
increase cost efficiency. Innovation in recycling methods is also needed to increase
processing yields and will enable solutions for the collection of plastics, which can be
difficult as plastics cannot be collected everywhere. Transition to circular economy
should be accelerated, with demand for bottled water continuing to rise, this will
exacerbate the environmental impacts previously mentioned in this report.

REFERENCES:

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article344959.ece - Accessed 9/04/2015

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4752 - Accessed 9/04/2015
Energy implications of bottled water by P H Gleick and H S Cooley Accessed 9/04/2015
at http://iopscience.iop.org
http://www.bottledwater.org - Accessed 9/04/2015

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/bottled-water-market.html - Accessed
9/04/2105

From From Cradle to Grave: The environmental footprint of bottled water Accessed
09/4/2015 at http://cfs-fcee.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2013/09/BWFDFactsheet-environmental-impact.pdf
Giant Ocean-Trash Vortex Attracts Explorers by Brian Handwerk (21 Jul 2009) at
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/07/090731-ocean-trash-pacific.html
accessed - 9/04/2015
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/07/090731-ocean-trash-pacific.html
- Accessed - 10/04/2015

Bundanoon Australias first bottled water free town - http://www.bundyontap.com.au/
- Accessed 10/04/2015

Pathways to Circular Economy Rabobank at
https://www.rabobank.com/en/images/Pathways-to-a-circular-economy.pdf
Accessed 11/04/2014

(EMF 2013) Report 2 - Towards the Circular Economy Vol. 2

(EMF 2014) Report 3 - Towards the Circular Economy Vol. 3