Bottled Water And Its Effects On The Environment

One of the biggest harms to the world is pollution caused by people. Most of the plastic materials used by people are left to pollute. Bottled water is one of the biggest plastic materials produced. Some people say that bottled water is safer, convenient, and provide jobs to workers in many ways. The reasons for buying bottled water differ. Some people buy bottled water because they don’t like the taste or smell of tap water, while others on the other hand buy it because of health concerns with water contamination. Pollution is one of the biggest problems hurting the environment today, and water bottles that are thrown out after each one-time use, contribute greatly to its increasing buildup. Bottled water is not only expensive to us, but also to the environment. Bottled water is hurting the economy, harming human lives, and damaging the environment.

The main issue with bottled water is the effect it has on the environment. Plastic bottles are drastically increasing the size of landfills and can take up to five hundred years to decompose. At the rate plastic

Many of people have not realized that the creation of bottled water affects our environment. The production of water bottles requires a large amount of water plus the water that is needed to fill the bottle. Considering there is a shortage of water in several places, water should be better handled and not wasted on plastic bottle making. Of the eighty million single serve bottles of water consumed daily, thirty million ends up in landfills (Soechtig, 2009 qtd. in “Bottled Water: The Risks to Our Health, Our

In 2004, Americans, on average, drank 24 gallons of bottled water, making it second only to carbonated soft drinks in popularity (Standage). In the article “Plastic Water Bottles Causing Flood or Harm to the Environment,” the Earth Policy Institute factors the energy used to pump, process, transport, and refrigerate bottled water as over 50 million barrels of oil every year (Schriever). It’s absurd that so many resources are used to make plastic bottles which are not necessary at all. Bottled water does allow us to drink water out of it but in reality bottled water is very bad for

According to The Water Project, “Bottles used to package water take over 1,000 years to bio-degrade and if incinerated, they produce toxic fumes. It is estimated that over 80% of all single-use water bottles used in the U.S. simply become ‘litter’” (“Bottled Water is Wasteful”). This fact is not the only reason I believe that bottled water does not outweigh its costs. Although statistics show that bottled water is efficient, there are many reasons to believe otherwise.

Michael Hiltzik’s first section of the article is especially important for individuals to know about. I agree 100% with his opinion on bottle water. There are many environmental dangers and unnecessary expenses for bottled water. Countless people don’t discard of their bottled waters in the recycling or trash bin. Eventually, these plastic dangers end up in the ocean and may put marine life in jeopardy.

Obsession may be the word used to describe American’s outlook towards bottled water. Many people buy it without thinking twice while others are thoughtful about the product. However, the use of bottled water establishes a challenge worth a discussion. As Susan Freinkel and Peter Gleick illustrate in their books, the use of plastic bottled water has birthed several consequences, which are not only economic but also environmental.

are non-recyclable and end up in landfills. More than 80 percent of recyclable plastic bottles end

Bottled water is something many people in the modern world drink from every day and trust fully, but what if this was all a huge scam? Plastic water bottles are convenient sure, but have serious negative effects that come along with them. These seemingly untroubling products are hurting not only consumer’s wallets, but the entirety of earth’s ecosystem. What are the negative effects that a bottle of water has and why is it so prevalent in our society if tap water is better in many ways? All the authors agree that bottled water has many drawbacks that come along with them, but Olsen seems to think regulation of quality for water bottles is a coming probability and may make them on par with tap water’s quality. I agree with the authors on this issue that bottled water is far behind on the best source of water and I believe the consumers of water bottles are simply unaware of the downsides it has.

The NRDC found out that two brands of plastic water bottles were contaminated with phthalates (Jemmott). Phthalates are used to make plastic softer. This chemical prevents the body’s normal functions from happening. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) only oversees water from being bottled, but does require bottlers to regularly test for contaminates (Jemmott). The FDA considers bottled water a low-risk product, so plants may not be inspected each year (Jemmott). Also bottled water in plastic bottles can contain PBC which is found to cause cancer (Bartlett). Overall bottled water can contain chemicals that can severely harm you in the

Americans utilize a great deal of water, in fact, the average American uses 90 gallons a day (Henshaw). So it is not surprising America has one of the cleanest water reserves in the world (“Water Quality”). A surprising statistic, however, is one-third of the American population drinks bottled water on a regular basis when the majority has clean drinking water at home (Olsen). This might be due to the fact that the bottled water industry has promoted itself as a healthier and more portable alternative to tap water. However, the truth is startling as bottled water is only a misleading, expensive, and dangerous gimmick to bring in revenue for large companies.

Have you ever had any concerns about bottled water? Do you think that bottled water is better than tap water? Bottled water is water packed in plastic containers and sold for human consumption (Health Canada, 2013). Currently, the amount of bottled water consumed has increased considerably since many people feel it is safer drinking bottled water than tap water (Parent and Wrong, 2014). According to The Statistics Portal the global sale of bottled water took a leap from 161, 589 to 181, 608 liters from 2009 to 2011. In the United States, each American citizen consumed around 32 gallons of bottled water in 2013, thus meaning an equivalent growth of 15% over 2009 (Statistics & facts, 2014). In fact, due to good portability, bottled water has been helpful in both simple and complex situations such as daily exercises and natural disasters. Even though having those few considerable advantages, bottled water still have been less benefits; especially due to the negative impact in the socio-economic, health and environmental fields.

The water bottle industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the United States. This being said, our landfills are filled with more than eighty five percent of plastic bottles. Their long lifetime and thoughtless consumers are not only filing our dumps with these plastic bottles, but hurting our oceans too. Since water bottles do not biodegrade, they can float aimlessly on the ocean surface for years. They also may cause a passing predator to be fooled into thinking it is a resting prey. Little did that predator know, they were going to have a serious stomach ache trying to digest a plastic bottle. It also pollutes the soil and waterways as well. Besides the space water bottles physically fill, their production waste is just as dire. In America alone, we use about seventeen

Most American see bottled water as a necessity, even though bottled water did not exist numerous years ago. Drinking out of a water bottle has become the customary drinking source for most Americans. We have become reliant on plastic waste. Water is life sustaining, so many of us would think that drinking water out of a bottle is harmless. Unfortunately it is not, there have been hints of PET and BPA in the plastic containers we are drinking out of. Both PET and BPA can stimulate sever health consequences. Not only are we putting our life in jeopardy by drinking out of bottled water but our planet as well. Plastic bottles don’t just vanish into thin air. Most Americans don’t recycle, so most plastic bottles end up on streets, rivers, lakes, canals, streams, or oceans polluting our planet. Not only is bottled water way more expensive than tap, it also contains the same water quality as tap water. In other words we’re just paying for the names on the plastic bottles. Rather than paying for quality, our tap water can produce just about the same value as bottled water. Bottled water is not all it is made out to be.

Have you ever had any concerns about bottled water? Do you think that bottled water consumption should be banned? Bottled water is water packed in plastic containers and sold for human consumption (Health Canada, 2013). Currently, the amount of bottled water consumed has increased considerably since many people feel it is safer drinking bottled water than tap water (Parent and Wrong, 2014). According to The Statistics Portal, the global sale of bottled water took a leap from 161, 589 to 181, 608 liters from 2009 to 2011. Only in the United States, each American citizen consumed around 32 gallons of bottled water in 2013, thus meaning an equivalent growth of 15, 94% over 2009 (The Statistics Portal, 2014). In fact, due to good portability, bottled water has been helpful in both simple and complex situations such as daily exercises and natural disasters. Even though having those few considerable advantages, bottled water still have been less beneficial; especially due to the negative impacts in the socio-economic, health and environmental fields.