Environmental impact of bottled water: what the data says and what you can do
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Bottled water is the most consumed drink in Spain. This is not just an impression: it's a fact. And behind that figure lies a chain of plastic, trucks, and miles that rarely appears on the label.
This article is not about blaming anyone for buying a pack of water. It's about putting the real numbers on the table, with sources, and reviewing what alternatives exist if you want to continue drinking water (still or sparkling) while significantly reducing your impact.
How much bottled water do we drink in Spain
In 2024, the sector bottled 6.8 billion liters of natural mineral water, about 300 million more than the previous year. Per capita consumption stood at 139 liters per person per year, almost half (47.7%) of all that we drink by volume. Spain is the fourth-largest producer of bottled water in the European Union.
Translated into containers: 139 liters is roughly equivalent to 93 one-and-a-half-liter bottles per person per year. In a four-person household, that's about 370 bottles annually. And this count is only for water: it does not include soft drinks or tonics.
What is the real environmental impact?
Here, it's important to be careful, as many unsupported figures circulate. The most solid reference we have in Spain is a study by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) in collaboration with the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, published in Science of the Total Environment in 2021.
The team did something almost nobody had done: combine a life cycle analysis (environmental impact) with a health impact assessment to compare three options—bottled water, tap water, and filtered tap water—in the city of Barcelona.
The result, if the entire population of Barcelona were to switch to bottled water:
• 1.43 species lost per year due to the necessary production.
• 83.9 million dollars annually in raw material extraction costs.
• Approximately 1,400 times more impact on ecosystems and 3,500 times more resource extraction costs than the equivalent scenario with tap water.
The authors summarize it bluntly: considering both environmental and health effects, tap water is a better option than bottled water. And they add an important nuance: filtered tap water is a good alternative, because it improves taste and odor and reduces the presence of trihalomethanes, provided the filter is well maintained.
A note of honesty: the study focuses on Barcelona because solid data was available there, and the quality of tap water varies greatly between municipalities. The conclusion is not automatically extrapolable to all of Spain, but it does indicate the order of magnitude.
Doesn't recycling compensate for it?
This is the most frequent objection, and it's reasonable. Spain recycles well compared to its surroundings: in 2025, Ecoembes managed the recycling of more than 2.2 million tons of domestic and commercial packaging, with an overall recycling rate of 74.6% for domestic packaging and 62% specifically for plastic, exceeding the objectives of Royal Decree 1055/2022.
This is good news. But it's worth looking at it with perspective:
1. Recycling is not free. Collecting, transporting, sorting, and reprocessing consume energy. It is better than landfill, but not better than not producing the packaging at all.
2. That 62% leaves out almost four out of ten plastic containers.
3. The official figures are disputed. Greenpeace Spain maintains that the actual effective recycling rate is significantly lower than the published data suggest. We mention this because the debate exists and it's good to be aware of it.
4. The packaging is only one part. The bottling, storage, and especially the transportation of billions of liters of water weigh as much as or more than the plastic itself.
The European waste hierarchy has been saying the same thing for decades, and it remains the best summary: reduce comes before reuse, and reuse comes before recycle.
Four ways to reduce impact at home
1. Tap water, nothing else
The option with the lowest impact and zero cost. It depends on the quality and taste of the water in your municipality, which you can check on your city council's website or the supplier's website.
2. Filtered tap water
Filter jug or under-sink filter. Improves taste and odor, and according to ISGlobal reduces risks associated with disinfection byproducts. Requires disciplined cartridge changes: a neglected filter is worse than none at all.
3. Returnable carboys
They reduce packaging per liter compared to small bottles, although they still involve transport and storage at home.
4. Carbonate tap water at home
If what you buy is sparkling water, this is the way to eliminate the most packaging: you start with the water that already reaches your kitchen and add the gas yourself, in a reusable bottle that you use for years. No packs, no transporting liters of water from a bottling plant, no overflowing yellow bin on Mondays.
This is exactly the approach of our little bubbler: tap water, a reusable bottle, and a CO₂ cylinder that, when empty, is returned and refilled instead of thrown away. The cylinder itself enters a return circuit, which is precisely the second step in the waste hierarchy.
Regarding taste: if the water in your area isn't to your liking, combining filtering and carbonation often solves it, because the bubbles also alter the mouthfeel.
What we can affirm (and what we cannot)
We can affirm, with studies to back it up, that bottled water has a much higher environmental impact than tap water, and that we consume a lot of it in Spain. We can affirm that we recycle reasonably well, and yet reducing is still preferable.
What we won't tell you is how many exact kilos of CO₂ you will personally save: that depends on your consumption, your municipality, your energy mix, and the distance to the bottling plant. Anyone who gives you that figure without knowing your specific case is rounding.
The honest truth is this: every liter that doesn't travel bottled to your kitchen is a liter that doesn't generate packaging, a pallet, or mileage. And that's something you can control.
Do you want to stop buying sparkling water packs? Discover how a sparkling water machine works and calculate how many containers you would stop buying in a year. If you already have one, check out our CO₂ cylinder refill service to close the loop.