We already have the water of the future at home… but we are still the first country in Europe for the consumption of bottled water.
The American investor Michael Burry, played by Christian Bale in the film “The Big Short”, was among the first to predict the 2008 real estate crisis, earning millions by betting against it. Shortly after the financial collapse, Burry liquidated the company to dedicate himself to his personal investments, and everyone – we read in the film – was directed towards a single commodity: water.
Investing in water has never been so profitable: already in 2008, Goldman Sachs, one of the largest investment banks in the world, had defined water as “the oil of the twenty-first century”,so much so that according to the charity WaterAid every pound invested in clean water has an economic return of at least four times greater.
The reason is simple: pollution, climate change, population growth, and excessive and inoculated consumption have made water increasingly scarce. According to a United Nations report, in 2050 – when the human population will be between nine and ten billion – there could be more than five billion people at risk of drought and water shortages. In 2010, a UN resolution recognized access to drinking water as a universal and fundamental human right. Today, seven out of ten people can count on having water at home. But if the use we make of it does not change radically, the right could become a privilege reserved for a few.
In this regard, as far as personal and domestic use is concerned, Italy is in the black in Europe, both for withdrawal from supply sources and for general consumption: 220 liters of water per person every day, against an average EU of 144 litres.
But not only that: Italy is unfortunately the holder of a further negative record, being the first country in Europe and the second in the world, after Mexico, for consumption of bottled water, with around 206 liters per year per person. of a world average of less than 50 litres.
This record is even more surprising if we consider the fact that Italy, unlike Mexico, is a country traditionally characterized by the abundance of spring and groundwater with excellent organoleptic qualities.
Despite drinking water flowing from almost all taps in Italy, nine out of ten people drink bottled water. In addition to being economic, the cost of this habit is mainly environmental, given that to manufacture a PET bottle, bottle the water, transport it and keep it cool, energy is needed which is approximately two thousand times that needed to obtain the same quantity of water from a tap connected to the aqueduct.
Furthermore, due to the inefficiencies of the system, only a tiny part of the plastic used to produce the bottles is recycled. According to National Geographic, 91% of the plastic produced in the world is not recycled. In Italy, in particular, a quantity of PET plastic corresponding to just one in four bottles is recycled, while the remaining three are incinerated, buried or dispersed in the environment.
Acqua Alma “Don’t Recycle, Refill”
Looking at this scenario, it is with great enthusiasm that we work on all the communication activities of Acqua Alma, the brand of the Celli Group, a company that seeks to drastically reduce plastic consumption, and whose claim “Don’t Recycle, Refill” well embodies the challenge necessary to spread in our country the responsible use of mains water treated with filtration systems, drawn directly from our taps.
At RBA Design, we believe it is necessary to reiterate every day how much these issues are close to our hearts. Every day, we want to do our part to address them and contribute, increasingly, to the new challenges of our partners.
