"I would really encourage people to generally think about what they're [buying] so that it can impact positively on the environment."
People needed to be more aware of the effects of using plastic bottles and there needed to be more alternatives.
The branch's Kiwi Conservation Club for children runs a beach clean up day every year and the majority of rubbish cleared is plastic from bottles.
Seabirds eat small bits of plastic which they also give to their chicks who end up starving because their stomachs are full of plastic.
Fish ingest it too and plastic is eventually taken up the food chain into our own bodies, she said.
There is also the fact that plastic comes from an oil background which has its own impacts on the environment.
So the less unnecessary plastic use the better for everyone and the environment, she said.
The survey showed more than a third of New Zealanders drink bottled water and one in five buy bottled water at least weekly.
However, nationally 64 per cent feel guilty about the bottles they buy and the effect of these on the environment and 87 per cent would be willing to give up buying bottles to protect the country's oceans.
The majority of respondents think there should be regulations or laws for single-use bottle purchase in order to reduce plastic pollution with 72 per cent wanting measures such as higher costs, taxes or making them less accessible.
SodaStream's Mark Stephenson said it was positive that most people supported the reduction of single-use plastic waste.
"If 20 per cent of Kiwis aged 15 and over are buying bottled water at least weekly as the survey shows, that adds up to more than 39 million plastic bottles per year being purchased, just for drinking water, in New Zealand alone.
"Interestingly, the survey showed that if bottled water became less socially acceptable - like what is happening with smoking - that would deter around three quarters of people from buying it, especially within the younger generation. Perhaps this is the route that we need to be going down."
There is an appetite for change and a willingness to make choices that will serve the environment, he said.
Nutritionist, Claire Turnbull, of Mission Nutrition, said many people wanted to increase their water intake to improve their health but they didn't need to buy bottled water to do so.
"It only takes small steps to alleviate the guilt of not drinking enough water and this doesn't to be done in a way that's environmentally harmful," she said.
The survey also showed that nearly half of all Hawke's Bay respondents prefer to drink tap water than bottled which is below the national average of 59 per cent.
A total 47 per cent of people in Hawke's Bay believe they should be drinking more water than they do.