Essay on Bottled Water

Have you ever considered what is happening to all the plastic bottles you use? According to "Bottled Water: The Wrong Choice paragraph 2" it states, that when plastic bottles are made we are using more fossil fuels. By doing this we are damaging environment!

“The Story of Bottled Water” by Annie Leonard’s central purpose is about how bottled water is less environmentally-friendly, less tasty, and less safe, but more expensive. The author wants action to be taken to ban water bottles and increase the access of safe tap water to all.

Only 20% of water bottles that are purchased make it to the recycle bin (Gunzelmann 1). So what happens to all the bottles that are not recycled? The bottles first photodegrade, meaning they slowly break down into smaller pieces, and then it is estimated to take between 500 to 1,000 years for the plastic to biodegrade. While the plastic is slowly breaking down, it either stays in a landfill, 38 billion plastic bottles end up in U.S. landfills each year ("Canned Water 4 Kids”); or it ends up in the ocean, According to Canned Water 4 Kids, there is a garbage patch floating in the Pacific Ocean that is estimated to be twice the size of Texas. No matter where the plastic breaks down, the tiny fragments absorb toxins which pollute our seas, lakes, and rivers, contaminate our soil, and poison animals.

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.

There are many impacts that bottled water has on the environment. The choice of packaging determines many impacts. The bottles, which are either plastic, aluminum, or glass, that are not recycled are thrown into landfills and buried. According to the Container Recycling Institute, 86% of plastic water bottles in the United States become garbage. If water bottlers would have used 10% recycled materials in their plastic bottles in 2004, they would have saved the equivalent of 72 million gallons of gasoline. If they used 25%, they would have saved enough energy to power more than 680,000 homes for a year (Jemmott, 2008). Incinerating used bottles produces toxins such as chlorine gas and ash. Water bottles that get buried can take up to thousands of years to biodegrade. The most common type of plastic is polyethylene

Water is essential to life, scientific fact, not debatable (Tracy). More than half of all Americans drink bottled water; about a third of the public consumes it regularly (Olsen). Many drink or buy bottled water simply because they believe it is of better quality, cleaner, and better tasting. On the contrary, several individuals do not know the cons of drinking bottled water. Today, there are many misconceptions and myths about bottled water. Many people are uneducated about what goes into our bottles and how it not only affects us but also our environment. In the article “The New Oil” by Jeneen Interlandi and Ryan Tracy they discuss the issues that have to do with water and the privatization of it. They believe there is a crisis and something has to be done. Due to the cost, pollution, shortage, and health issues, bottled water should be outlawed. Water should not be controlled by water bottle companies and should not be allowed to be sold in plastic bottles.

From helping the daily jogger stay hydrated during a run to that mom and family trying to stay hydrated at the amusement park, bottled water has had a lot of good to it. However do those goods outweigh the bad? In “Bottled Water: Friend or Foe?” by Christopher Castillo, Diana Goettsch, Angela Reid, and Catherine Sterling argue bottled water are our worst enemy, reasons being the bottle itself has harming chemicals within it which we are drinking, bottled water damages our environment, and lastly we are spending more on bottled water when we have the same water coming from our sinks.

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.

We’ll start with how bottled water means more garbage. Most people, after drinking bottled water throw away the bottle instead of recycling it. This is why 70 million percent of human waste are bottles from water. Plus, a lot of times when you drive down the road the most occasional thing you’ll see are bottles. So, if your going to drink from a bottle then recycle

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.

In comparison to tap water, the drawbacks of bottled water outweigh the advantages. Research provides evidence in the article Bottled water vs. tap water that, “Bottled water is far more costly and hazardous to the environment for us to be able to recommend it as the better

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 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

First of all, many people are destroying the environment because of water bottles. My first reason is many people don't recycle water bottles they are thrown in the garbage. When water bottles are thrown in the garbage they go to the dumpster, and stay there for a long time, but they sit there for many years. People don't recycle them it might take up most of our land which is really not good. Secondly, People are just throwing