Bluewater warns of dangers to global ocean health of single use water bottles

Stockholm, Sweden, March 22, 2017 – Bluewater, a leader in innovative residential water purifying solutions, today said mounting evidence that the health of the planet's oceans is under threat from plastics pollution demands urgent attention from world government. In a call marking World Water Day 2017, Bluewater added governments and city authorities need to urgently legislate schemes to promote recycling by taxing or banning the use of single-use plastic bottles altogether.

“It is unreal that a small plastic bottle taking just a minute or two to swig empty of water may end up floating around in the ocean for a thousand years or more, yet that is what is happening,” said Bengt Rittri, founder and chairman of Bluewater, a Swedish-based water purification technologies company. He said urgent action was needed to find alternatives to the millions of plastic bottles being used every day and not being recycled.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) says each year more than 8 million tonnes of plastic ends up in the oceans, wreaking havoc on marine wildlife, fisheries and tourism –costing at least US$8 billion in damage to marine ecosystems. Up to 80 percent of all litter on our beaches and in our oceans comprises plastic, which the Ocean Conservatory says is mostly plastic bottles and plastic bags.

There is no sign the situation will improve. In a report issued in March, the US Plastic Industries Association said that 'demand for plastic bottles continues to grow in the United States and predicts it will rise around 6 percent over the next three years'. According to the Beverage Marketing Corp, 2016 for the first time saw 'bottled water consumption exceeded carbonated soft drinks in sales in the U.S.', accounting for 41.2 percent of all beverage packaging units in 2016.

Statistics website statista.com said bottled water consumption worldwide in 2017 would reach an estimated 391 billion liters compared to 212 billion bottles a decade ago, an 84 percent increase. The biggest consumers of plastic water bottles are the Chinese who consume around 10.42 billion liters of water yearly, closely followed by the Americans who drank almost 10.13 billion bottles.

“The problem is not how much plastic there is in the oceans today, but rather how we can stop adding more and remove what is already there. There are many reasons to recycle, from reducing energy wastage to improving water quality, but probably the biggest one is protecting our planet’s health so it can sustain future generations,” said Mr. Rittri.

For more information, please contact

David Noble, head of public relations and communications, on +447785302694 or david.noble@bluewatergroup.com