How bottled water is made
Bottlers disinfect water with ozone gas in place of chlorine, because chlorine would leave a taste and smell.
- stations
- 6
- things upstream
- 18
- raw sources
- 8
- steps from the ground
- 6
The short version
Bottled water starts as spring, well or municipal water. Depending on the label it is filtered, purified by reverse osmosis or distillation, and disinfected with ozone gas. Bottles are blown from PET plastic, filled and capped. On average a bottler uses 1.32 liters of water for each liter sold, counting treatment, bottling and plant upkeep.
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Draw the source water
Spring water flows naturally from an underground formation to the surface. Mineral water is groundwater that has flowed over rock and emerged from the ground, and other bottled water starts as well or municipal supply.
Goes in -
Filter out the particles
Water flows through filters that hold back particles, and absolute 1 micron filtration is fine enough to remove the parasite Cryptosporidium. Mineral water is allowed only a limited cleanup in the EU, such as removing unstable iron and sulfur compounds.
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Purify through a membrane
Water sold as purified is made by distillation, deionization or reverse osmosis. Reverse osmosis pushes water under pressure through a membrane that holds back dissolved minerals.
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Disinfect with ozone
Bottlers of all types of water typically dissolve ozone gas into it to kill microbes. It has played this role in the industry since the 1970s, and it leaves none of the taste and odor that chlorine does.
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Form the bottles
PET plastic has replaced glass for most single-serving bottles, because it is light and resists breaking. Preforms are blown into bottle shape, often right at the plant.
Goes in -
Fill and cap
Bottles are filled with the treated water and capped. Under US rules the product cannot contain sweeteners or chemical additives to be sold as bottled water.
Worth repeating
- PET bottles were patented in 1973 by the DuPont engineer Nathaniel Wyeth.
- Federal quality standards for bottled water in the United States were first adopted in 1973, the same year as the PET bottle patent.
Back to the ground
Follow every input upstream and bottled water starts as these 8 raw sources.
Keep walking
Sources
- Bottled water
- Reverse osmosis
- Bottled Water Everywhere: Keeping it Safe (FDA)
- A Brief History of the Role of Ozone in Water Bottling
Cite this page: "How bottled water is made." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/bottled-water