Researchers examining global bottled water consumption found that convenience, limited access to safe drinking water, and advertising are the primary factors pushing sales past 500 billion bottles per year. That works out to over 1.3 billion bottles purchased daily, or more than one million every minute.
The scale of plastic waste is enormous, with much of it ending up in landfills or inside human bodies. The long-term health implications of this exposure remain unclear, but the authors stress that the reliance on bottled water is not just an environmental issue—it reflects deeper problems with public water infrastructure and marketing influence.
No other sources were available for comparison, so the findings stand as a single analysis. The study highlights a need for better public water access and regulation of bottled water advertising to curb consumption.