The Huffington Post
by Adele Israel
Columnist, Community Activist
Posted: October 6, 2009
It is time to stop the insanity and you can help! I am referring to the madness of purchasing water in single-use, disposable plastic bottles. In spite of the convenience, this is a crazy concept and we must put an end to it.
You may ask, "What's so crazy about using individual bottles of water?" Pardon my candor, but not only is this habit unnecessary and ridiculously expensive, it is also wasteful and dependent on diminishing resources.
Let me share a few important facts:
1 Plastics are made by synthesizing certain chemicals found in fossil fuels like oil, natural gas or coal, to create chains of carbon and hydrogen atoms. These chains are enhanced with additional chemicals and highly-specialized manufacturing processes.
2 Plastic is forever. Although some types of plastic can be recycled, it does not ever completely biodegrade.
3 Plastic is lightweight and can travel many, many miles from where it was discarded.
4 Plastic water bottles account for more than one million tons of waste per year.
5 Plastics break down just enough to release toxins that can be hazardous to your health.
Bottled water is expensive. With most of us trying to trim our budgets, this is one expense to jettison immediately. Assuming you pay one buck for a 20-ounce bottle of water, that translates to $6.40 per gallon. Local Ute water costs less than 1/2 cent a gallon. We refill large reusable containers of water at Purified Water to Go and still only pay 35 cents a gallon. From an economic standpoint, individually bottled water is simply a ridiculous waste of money.
Then you have to take into account the amount of resources used to make all those bottles, fill them and transport them. The fossil fuel that is diverted into making water bottles for one year could run more than 100,000 cars during that same time period.
Which bring us full circle to the trash resulting from the bottled-water habit. Each year in the United States about 40 billion water bottles are thrown away, wherever "away" is. Fewer than 20 percent of water bottles actually get recycled.
Purchasing water in plastic, single-serve containers is a lose-lose situation. Stop buying this wasteful product and encourage others to follow your lead. Together we can stop the madness now. (read more)
by Adele Israel
Columnist, Community Activist
Posted: October 6, 2009
It is time to stop the insanity and you can help! I am referring to the madness of purchasing water in single-use, disposable plastic bottles. In spite of the convenience, this is a crazy concept and we must put an end to it.
You may ask, "What's so crazy about using individual bottles of water?" Pardon my candor, but not only is this habit unnecessary and ridiculously expensive, it is also wasteful and dependent on diminishing resources.
Let me share a few important facts:
1 Plastics are made by synthesizing certain chemicals found in fossil fuels like oil, natural gas or coal, to create chains of carbon and hydrogen atoms. These chains are enhanced with additional chemicals and highly-specialized manufacturing processes.
2 Plastic is forever. Although some types of plastic can be recycled, it does not ever completely biodegrade.
3 Plastic is lightweight and can travel many, many miles from where it was discarded.
4 Plastic water bottles account for more than one million tons of waste per year.
5 Plastics break down just enough to release toxins that can be hazardous to your health.
Bottled water is expensive. With most of us trying to trim our budgets, this is one expense to jettison immediately. Assuming you pay one buck for a 20-ounce bottle of water, that translates to $6.40 per gallon. Local Ute water costs less than 1/2 cent a gallon. We refill large reusable containers of water at Purified Water to Go and still only pay 35 cents a gallon. From an economic standpoint, individually bottled water is simply a ridiculous waste of money.
Then you have to take into account the amount of resources used to make all those bottles, fill them and transport them. The fossil fuel that is diverted into making water bottles for one year could run more than 100,000 cars during that same time period.
Which bring us full circle to the trash resulting from the bottled-water habit. Each year in the United States about 40 billion water bottles are thrown away, wherever "away" is. Fewer than 20 percent of water bottles actually get recycled.
Purchasing water in plastic, single-serve containers is a lose-lose situation. Stop buying this wasteful product and encourage others to follow your lead. Together we can stop the madness now. (read more)
2 comments:
The information in this post is so important! It should be broadcast everywhere - on television, on the radio, in newspapers...
I agree with the waste and what it has done to our environment. I wish water had never been bottled in the first place.
I myself at least buy the gallons of water and fill up my individual bottles whenever possible. Or I pour the water in a glass and drink it that way when I am home. I am trying to break the habit of buying ANY individual bottles totally. I will succeed someday.
Thank you for a very interesting post and for trying to educate the public. I only wish you could reach a wider audience.
excellent post oberon!!!
we've really got to this insanity
and the same thought must be aplied to many other stuff, such as plastic bags and all those useless stupid packages!!!
a friend of mine has done an amazing thing (and i am myself used to do the same) ...he's carrying the very same bottle of water for more than three years now, always filling it up at the places he goes that have some clean water available... first because... well, it's quite an absurd to pay for something as important as the fresh air to keep us alive, and so abundant yet, despite our stupidity on turning it all pretty dirty and quite undrinkable... and why the fuck should we have to throw away as garbage something so last longging as these plastic bottles?
wow man, great post as usual!
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