Great Pollution Caused by Plastic Bottles

[baqirkhatri]

In the late 1970s, bottled water was introduced in the market and was widely accepted by many consumers. Then, in year 2000 bottled water companies bloomed and had caused a strain in the natural environment due to the production of 1.5 million tons of plastic bottle per year which causes pollution worldwide. 

India Plastic Bottle

According to statistics, bottled water causes pollution because tons of crude oil is being used to produce bottled waters. An environmentalist once said that is takes 17 million of oil barrels to make 1.5 million plastic containers which is actually enough to fuel 1 million cars, also it would take 2.7 million tons of plastic are needed to make plastic containers each year. Though the governments have supported the recycling of this plastic bottle, data shows that from 53% recycling of bottled water in 1993 it decreases to 12% of the total plastic bottle in the year of 2003.

For the environmentalists' view, the continuous decrease of recycled plastic bottles were becoming very alarming and one solution that they cam up to solve this problem is the formation of a national law that would enable the government to come with a plan on how to give incentives for those who would help the government in recycling plastic ware especially plastic bottles.

Some experts say that it is much better to drink tap water than bottled water because of the following reasons:

• Cheaper cost per gallon of tap water compared to bottled water
• 90% of bottled water are not recycled
• 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide is thought to be generated in the year 2006 for the production of plastic bottle.
• Phthalet contamination - commonly used in making plastic may contaminate the water inside the plastic container especially those old bottles.
• Bisphenol A contamination - Bisphenol is a harmful chemical which is a common component of plastic bottled. It has a tendency to contaminate water once the plastic bottle is heated or if there is a crack in the bottle itself.

Statistics have shown that USA is the largest consumer of water in plastic bottle in the world. Some are not aware of the consequences of buying bottled waters while others are simply ignoring the harmful effects of such. Although the government have already assured the public that all water coming out of their faucet are all clean and drinkable still bottled water continues to increase its sale yearly and according to one data coming from government institution, Americans have already spent $11 billion of dollars on bottled H2O in the year of 2006 only and are expected to increase yearly. Furthermore, reports show that in that same year 1 out of 5 plastic containers have been recycled.

One company in the State of Colorado named "BIOTA" have invented a biodegradable plastic which is actually made of dow chemical and corn starch that is processed by seed company Cargill. Compared with the ordinary plastic bottle which takes 1,000 years to degrade, the plastic bottle made from BIOTA takes only 80 days. This invention might help us ease the strain in the environment and keep us away from the damaging effects of pollution.