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 tothe lack of trust on tap water quality and also due to its association with ahealthy lifestyle. However, the current quantity of water necessary to obtainbottled water is not quite known. The aim of this work was to calculate the WaterFootprint (WF) of a bottled water industry and to propose improvements for itssustainable use. Data from a small plant located in Salta (Argentina) wasobtained and critical steps, regarding water use, within the process wereidentified. Blue, grey, indirect, and total WF were calculated. Three differentscenarios were proposed to analyze and thus optimize water use. Total WF forone-year production was 3.15 × 107 l, being the indirect WF thehighest (78%), followed by the blue (14%) and grey (8%). The scenarios whichbest optimized water use were the replacement of tap water for groundwater asraw material and half electricity reduction, both related to indirect consumption.