Social life cycle assessment of drinking water: Tap water, bottled mineral water and tap water treated with domestic filters

Abstract

The aim of this study was to develop a novel Social Life Cycle Assessment framework to assess the social impacts of different drinking water choices in the city of Barcelona (Spain): i) tap water; ii) bottled mineral water (PET bottle); iii) tap water treated with a domestic activated carbon filter (countertop pitchers with activated carbon); iv) tap water treated with domestic reverse osmosis. Their impacts on different stakeholder groups (i.e. workers, consumers, value chain actors, local community, and society) were evaluated. Five impact categories were included (i.e. health and safety, working conditions, human rights, governance and socio-economic repercussions), which comprise 14 different impact subcategories and a total of 21 indicators. Performance Reference Points were used to assess all the indicators. The results showed that tap and bottled mineral water showed good social performance in all the stakeholder impact categories. In particular, tap water showed the best social performance in: i) health and safety (i.e. presence of certifications) for workers; ii) end-of-life responsibility (i.e. no waste production) and transparency (i.e. presence of sustainability reports) for consumers; iii) access to material resources (i.e. presence of certified environmental management systems and no environmental risks) for local communities; and, iv) technological development (i.e. partnerships in research and development) for society. However, its social acceptance is significantly lower than bottled mineral water. In general, domestic devices for tap water treatment (i.e. countertop pitchers with activated carbon and reverse osmosis) did not improve the social performance of tap water, but they significantly enhanced consumers' acceptance up to the level of bottled mineral water.