The bottled water industry is valued at more than $170 billon, and North Americans are among the top consumers. In 1999, the average Canadian consumed 24.4 litres of bottled water per year. Fifteen years later, in 2014, that number nearly tripled to 70 litres
Bottled Water in the NWT
Although there is some existing information about bottled water consumption in Canada, there was no public data about consumption in the NWT. Ecology North wanted to know more, and felt this was an important data gap that required attention. So, as part of Canada Water Week 2016, Ecology North launched a preliminary research initiative to learn more about the consumption of bottled water in the NWT.
Between October 2015 and January 2016 we conducted an NWT-wide survey of bottled water retailers. We asked them to provide data pertaining to their bottled water sales for the year of 2014. Flavoured and sparkling water products were excluded from the research. In total, 24 different bottled water retailers provided bottled water sales data, representing 53 sales locations across the NWT. See the infographic below for more of our findings!