We already have the water of the future in our own home…but we are still the first country in Europe in terms of consumption of bottled water.
The American investor Michael Burry, played by Christian Bale in the film “The Big Bet”, was among the first to predict the 2008 real estate crisis by making millions by betting against it. Shortly after the financial collapse, Burry liquidated the company to devote himself to his personal investments, and everyone – according to the film – was directed towards only one commodity: water.
Investing in water has never been so profitable: as early as 2008, Goldman Sachs, one of the largest financial institutions in the world, had called water “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 that is at least four times greater.
The reason is simple: pollution, climate change, population growth, and overconsumption have made water increasingly scarce. According to a United Nations report, by 2050 – when the human population will be between nine and ten billion – more than five billion people could be 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 in their homes. But if we do not radically change the way we use it, the right could become a privilege reserved for a few.
Regarding this, as far as personal and domestic use is concerned, Italy is a black sheep in Europe, both for its extraction from sources of supply and for its general consumption: a whopping 220 liters of water per person every day, compared to an EU average of 144 liters.
But not only that: Italy is unfortunately also the holder of another negative record, being the first country in Europe and the second in the world, after Mexico, for consumption of bottled water, with about 206 liters per person per year, compared to a global average of less than 50 liters.
This record is even more surprising considering that Italy, unlike Mexico, is a country traditionally characterized by the abundance of spring and well water with excellent organoleptic qualities.
Although drinking water is available from almost all water taps in Italy, nine out of ten people drink bottled water. Besides being economical, the cost of this habit is primarily environmental, since it takes energy equivalent to about two thousand times the amount needed to obtain the same amount of water from a tap connected to the water supply system to manufacture a PET bottle and bottle the water, and to transport and store it in a cool place.
The plastic used to produce the bottles, moreover, due to inefficiencies in the system, is recycled only in a tiny fraction. According to National Geographic, 91% of the plastic produced in the world is not recycled. In Italy, in particular, only one in four PET plastic 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, we are working with great enthusiasm 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 necessary challenge to spread in our country the responsible use of tap water treated with filtration systems, directly dispensed from our faucets.
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.
