Life Cycle Assessment of Three Safe Drinking-Water Options in India: Boiled Water, Bottled Water, and Water Purified with a Domestic Reverse-Osmosis Device

Tirma Garcia-Suarez, Michal Kulak, Henry King, Julia Chatterton, Arunima Gupta and Skand Saksena
Additional contact information
Tirma Garcia-Suarez: Safety and Environmental Assurance Centre, Unilever, Sharnbrook, Bedford MK44 1LQ, UK
Michal Kulak: Safety and Environmental Assurance Centre, Unilever, Sharnbrook, Bedford MK44 1LQ, UK
Henry King: Safety and Environmental Assurance Centre, Unilever, Sharnbrook, Bedford MK44 1LQ, UK
Julia Chatterton: Safety and Environmental Assurance Centre, Unilever, Sharnbrook, Bedford MK44 1LQ, UK
Arunima Gupta: Mumbai Hindustan Unilever Research Centre (HURC), I C T Road Andheri (E), Mumbai 400 099, India
Skand Saksena: Mumbai Hindustan Unilever Research Centre (HURC), I C T Road Andheri (E), Mumbai 400 099, India

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 22, 1-17

Abstract: Indian households connected to improved water sources still need to purify their water before drinking. In this study, environmental impacts of three purification options in urban India were compared: (a) boiling water, (b) bottled, purified water, and (c) purifying the water with a domestic reverse-osmosis (RO) device. Primary data for the manufacture, distribution, and the use of the RO device were obtained directly from the manufacturer. Standard, attributional Life Cycle Assessment was performed using a suite of impact assessment methods from ReCiPe v 1.8. In addition, blue and green water consumptions were quantified using the Quantis water database. Bottled water was found to be associated with the highest impacts for all impact categories considered, mainly due to the production and the transportation of bottles. The preference between the other two systems depends on the considered impact category. Water boiled using the liquefied petroleum gas (current practice of urban consumers in India) was found to have higher impacts on climate change and fossil resource use than water from a domestic RO device. The use of the device; however, was found to have higher impacts on water resources than boiling, both in terms of quality (freshwater eutrophication) and availability (water consumption).

Keywords: drinking water; India; reverse-osmosis device; life cycle analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/22/6233/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/22/6233/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:22:p:6233-:d:284382

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().