We have all drank from plastic water bottles and have thrown them in the trash. Some may recycle them, but this doesn’t completely counteract the issue. Over a million plastic water bottles are sold per minute. In fact, “global sales of bottled water are expected to nearly double by 2030” (Ramirez). Plastic bottles are used everyday by millions of people to stay hydrated. My question is why?
Plastic water bottles are becoming more expensive as inflation increases. While the cost of a single reusable water bottle is significantly less than a month’s worth of plastic water bottles. Using reusable water bottles can be more environmentally safe way of consuming water. With less plastic waste we could see a great improvement in littering, ocean pollution, and fumes that come from degrading the plastic.
While plastic water bottles may come with convenience, I wonder who really benefits from the sale of plastic. Plastic water bottle sales have a global value of over 270 billion dollars. This amount of money is what is driving companies to push plastic water bottles over reusable, as it supports company growth while, ignoring the environmental impact. On top of that 25% of plastic water bottle sales benefit only 5 companies such as: Pepsico, The Coca Cola Company, Nestlé, Danone, and Primo Water. These companies push their bottled water into tons of sports, events, college, campuses, and every grocery store.
It was found that in westernized cultures bottled water is viewed as cleaner and better than tap. Despite clean tap water being widely available in these countries. While in non westernized countries where clean tap water isn’t available, plastic water bottles are used out of necessity. Living in a country with clean tap water, we need to utilize it as it is no better than bottled. On top of that many schools and business in the U.S. have started to push filtered water fountains in every building and floor. What is our excuse to keep using plastic water bottles.
Plastic water bottles not only are littered every day but they take over 1,000 years to fully degrade. On top of this 85% of plastic water bottles end up in waste or the ocean. We as a westernized country with access to clean tap water needs to do better and avoid these harmful products especially when we have so many alternatives and access to recycling.
In recent, years reusable water bottles have already become quite popular. Brands like Yeti, Stanley, Hydroflask, etc… are already consistently available for purchase. On top of those popular brands there are a lot of other alternatives because those brands can be a little pricey. Many schools and companies also give away free water bottles to support the anti-plastic cause. There is no excuse to not use a reusable water bottle in your day-to-day as they have become exceedingly accessible.
While plastic water bottles aren’t the main source of pollution it is important for everyone to do their part. This planet is our home and it has served us well for centuries, it’s about time we try to fix our mistakes and treat the Earth with more respect.
Work Cited
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/16/world/plastic-water-bottles-un-report-climate/index.html
Why are Disposable Water Bottles Harmful to the Environment?
(easybib and other citation websites were not working so I pasted the links)