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The Imminent Danger of Disposable Plastic Bottles

If you think the title of this article is overly dramatic, then you haven’t seen the numbers on disposable plastic bottle waste. America is the number one polluting nation when it comes to plastic water bottles depositing 60 million plastic bottles a day into landfills across the country. Our landfills are piling up with these non-biodegradable plastic materials which are estimated to take 1,000 years to decompose. That is not the only problem either; plastic bottles are made of crude oil which among other things has created geo-political violence over its scarcity. Seventeen million barrels of crude oil a year are used to create these plastic bottles. Oil is a non-renewable resource which means once our supply has run out - there is no way to regenerate it. Experts believe the amount of oil we have left provides us with a supply of between fifty and 250 years. Finally, many studies have shown that disposable plastic bottles can be hazardous to your health as their toxic material leaks into your water supply and has been linked to certain types of cancer.

Unfortunately finding an answer to this looming danger is not as easy as it seems. Americans have been using plastic water bottles with huge frequency for nearly two decades. Their unparalleled convenience matches perfectly with the busy lifestyle of the average working American. One possible solution is recycling. Plastic water bottles are recyclable and though the US does not have the greatest recycling infrastructure, it’s still a viable option. After recycling a plastic bottle they can be casted into other plastic materials like chairs and tables. Despite the fact that recycling has grown to become a major undertaking and industry in America only one out of every six plastic bottles are actually recycled. More recycling awareness campaigns could help increase the amount of disposable plastic bottles that are recycled but unfortunately won’t provide the sweeping change that is needed. Recycling these bottles also doesn’t alleviate the health concerns that have recently arisen about plastic bottle water consumption.

The only comprehensive solution to the imminent danger of disposable plastic bottles is to relinquish our use of them entirely. Luckily there is a viable substitute for disposable plastic bottles and that’s reusable water bottles. Reusable water bottles can be made of aluminum, hard plastic or stainless steel. These bottles will reduce the average person’s environmental impact by a lot and save people hundreds of dollars a year of plastic water bottle purchasing. Reusable water bottles can also come with special features that make them even more convenient than disposable bottles like rubber grip areas, flip top access, insulation to keep water cold and a more durable shell. Reusable water bottles, especially stainless steel or aluminum water bottles have a very long shelf life and though they are not made of easily biodegradable material, the amount of plastic waste they save makes them extremely environmentally friendly.