Bottled water has retained its title as America’s favorite packaged drink, outselling carbonated soft drinks (by volume) for the eighth year in a row, new data from the Beverage Marketing Corporation (BMC) shows.
Bottled water’s total volume sold in 2023 was 15.94 billion gallons, compared to carbonated soft drinks, which sold 11.84 billion gallons. Bottled water retail sales surpassed $48 billion, up 6.5% from 2022.
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Bottled water products compete with other packaged drinks, but not tap water. Most bottled water drinkers consume both tap water and bottled water, packaged conveniently in 3 and 5-gallon for the home and office, or at retail 1 and 2.5 gallon or individual size commonly sold by the case.
However, when people are away from home and bottled water isn’t available, 70% say they will choose another packaged drink, according to a survey conducted in 2022 on behalf of the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) by The Harris Poll. Survey respondent choices were as follows: soda (22%), sparkling or sweetened or flavored bottled water (10%), sports drink (8%), tea (7%), coffee (6%), juice/fruit drinks (5%), functional water (5%), bottled tea (4%), energy drink (3%). Among the remaining 30%, a third (10%) would drink from a water dispenser, either using a refillable cup (5%) or disposable cup (5%). Ten percent would drink filtered tap water, 6% would drink unfiltered tap water, while 4% would drink from a public water fountain (down from 7% in 2019).
For more than a decade, consumers have been increasingly choosing bottled water instead of less-healthy packaged drinks. In fact, since 2012, 34% of bottled water’s growth has come from people switching from less-healthy drinks to bottled water.
Bottled water’s volume surpassed soft drinks for the first time in 2016 and has done so every year since. Americans consumed, on average, 46.4 gallons of bottled water in 2023, compared to 34.4 gallons of soda. The fact is that consumers demand bottled water. Research shows that nine out of 10 Americans (91%) say they expect bottled water to be available wherever other drinks are sold.
Even with continuing growth and increased consumption, bottled water still has the smallest impact on the environment—thanks to the fact that it has the smallest water and energy use footprint of any packaged beverage. On average, only 1.4 liters of water (including the 1 liter of water consumed) and 0.21 mega joules of energy are used to produce 1 liter of finished bottled water.
Most bottled water is packaged in 100% recyclable PET #1 plastic and HDPE #2 plastic, which are the plastics most recognized by consumers as being recyclable and the most recycled plastics in the world. Consumers can be confident about recycling plastic bottled water containers because they are among the few consumer packaging types that are universally recyclable across the United States. Not all cities and towns recycle glass bottles and laminated paper cartons, which are most commonly comprised of multiple layers of paper, plastic, and aluminum or wax.
PET plastic bottled water containers are the most recycled containers in U.S. curbside recycling programs, accounting for 52%. PET plastic bottled water containers are a valuable resource because they can be recycled and used over and over again.
Recycling facilities know that there is a huge industry demand for post-consumer PET and HDPE plastics. Many bottled water companies use recycled PET and HDPE plastic to create new bottles, which helps to reduce their environmental impact further because they aren’t using virgin plastic.
