Towards an efficient use of water in the bottled water industry through Water Footprint calculation

MAINARDI REMIS JUAN MARTÍN; DOLORES GUTIÉRREZ CACCIABUE; VERÓNICA RAJAL

Guayaquil

Conferencia; Use of Water: Cities, Industry and Agriculture. Guayaquil, Ecuador; 2019

Bottled water consumption has widely increased around the world due to the lack of trust on tap water quality and also due to its association with a healthy lifestyle. However, the current quantity of water necessary to obtain bottled water is not quite known. The aim of this work was to calculate the Water Footprint (WF) of a bottled water industry and to propose improvements for its sustainable use. Data from a small plant located in Salta (Argentina) was obtained and critical steps, regarding water use, within the process were identified. Blue, grey, indirect, and total WF were calculated. Three different scenarios were proposed to analyze and thus optimize water use. Total WF for one-year production was 31.5 × 106 l, being the indirect WF the highest (78%), followed by the blue (14%) and grey (8%). The scenarios which best optimized water use were the replacement of tap water for groundwater as raw material and half electricity reduction, both related to indirect consumption.