Authored by Samantha Clapp
It’s now 2018 and people can not be bothered with buying a reusable water bottles that is at least 10 dollars at your local store. At the age of 8, every single child around the world has learned about the idea of global warming. We learned how it is harmful, and what we can change to make our planet healthier and long lasting for the next generations. But every country and person are not taking the necessary actions to make our world stop falling into the dismal fate that environmentalist predicted. Our planet is now feeling the consequences from buying over 1 million plastic bottles every minute, that is nearly 20,000 every second.
The future generations will be living in landfills of plastic and trash. By 2050 there will be 12 billion metric tons of plastic in landfills. That amount is 35,000 times heavier than the Empire State Building. All of beaches will be disgusting and all of the animals in the ocean will endangered or dead from the plastic suffocating them. Since plastic is a very strong material to degrade, it will take almost 400 years for it to be completely gone. Scientists predict that there will be more plastic waste than fish in the future. If we do not take the necessary steps towards a cleaner future, all of these predictions will come true.
People do not understand that there is no excuse to not have a reusable water bottle. Even when you do you use a plastic water bottle, 91% of the time you will not recycle it or even think about recycling it. The average American in 2017 used 167 disposable water bottles, but only recycled 38 of them. Even if you planned on recycling all of the water bottles you use, just remember it does take 400 years to degrade.
Not only plastic water bottles are bad for the environment, it also wastes our country resources. Making bottles to meet America’s high demand uses more than 17 million barrels of oil annually. A lot of people may think that the water comes out of a perfect water spring, but more than half the time it is just glorified tap water. Also during the summer time, if you ever leave your water bottle in your car or outside and exposed to heat it may release toxins. Some of them are laced with chemicals that can seep out if bottles are exposed to heat or sit around for a long time. This is ultimately just another reason for you to make the switch to reusable water bottles, because now you know the facts that they can release harmful chemicals to your body.
When you ditch disposable bottled water, you save money, live healthier, and join a movement for global sustainability. Plus, it is very easy to make the switch. The people that continue to use plastic argue that being able to tote around a bottle of water and discard it when it’s empty is undeniably convenient. Water fountains are occasionally soiled or in disrepair, and aren’t available anywhere, anytime. Reusable bottles can’t be tossed once they’re empty, and if lost, are expensive to replace. You can find any beverage you desire in a convenient plastic bottle, from water to chocolate milk to juice. Even if you somehow can not afford a reusable water bottle, start a recycling system at your house, to a conmandate for your use of plastic.