One million bottles of exported drinking water causes emission of 18.2 tons of carbon dioxide. Worldwide, 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water every year, creating mountains of garbage and fouling waterways. Fewer than 5 percent of plastic bottles around the world are recycled; most are either incinerated, which produces toxic by-products such as chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals, or buried, where they take a thousand years to biodegrade.
