Adalae Simpao

Jackson

English

12-03-19

The Waste of Water Bottles

Plastic water bottles have one of the largest environmental impacts, yet are very commonplace

objects that have detrimental effects on our environment, health, and wildlife. The effects of

single-use plastic water bottles are more negative than positive, so they have to be banned to

protect the environment from more plastic waste.

Plastic water bottles and water bottle caps are the third and fourth most common forms of

plastic waste in the environment (Whitaker). These water bottles represent waste and our

growing consumerism. Before 1947 when plastic water bottles were made, people did not

heavily rely on single use water bottles that we now see everywhere. Today people buy one

million water bottles per minute. Only about 23% of these plastic bottles are recycled (Fact

Sheet). When plastic is not recycled, it either ends up in a landfill where it leaks chemicals into

the ground or in the ocean where it is eaten by wildlife. Plastic can take years to biodegrade, and

when it does it gets broken down into smaller and smaller pieces that can end up in our diets

through fish, birds, and water. These plastic water bottles, as helpful as they may seem, have an

immense impact on the environment. Plastic water bottles should be banned to help protect

wildlife, the environment, and indirectly, humans.

The easiest alternative to a single-use water bottle is a reusable water bottle. Some would

argue that banning plastic water bottles makes things more inconvenient, but if you use a
reusable water bottle you would not have to go out and buy more water bottles. This is not only a

convenience for you, it saves time and money. One could save an average of one hundred

fifty-six plastic bottles annually if they buy a reusable water bottle (Fact Sheet). Other options

for replacing single-use plastic water bottles are a natural algae-seaweed based packaging, glass,

or boxed water. The natural packaging option is an edible “water bottle” that is sustainable,

biodegradable, and cheap. These water balls have been tested at athletic events in Europe and are

hopefully moving towards becoming mass distributed. Glass water bottles are reusable, and

boxed water is recyclable and biodegrades faster than plastic. These sustainable replacements to

plastic water bottles can make a major impact on the amount of plastic waste.

Convenient, inexpensive, single-use water bottles that help us, are now recognized as one

of the major contributors to our deteriorating planet. Plastic water bottles should be banned to

save wildlife, oceans, other ecosystems, and the cause of it all, us. The solutions that would

replace bottled water are clean, sustainable, and comparatively inexpensive. This one act of

replacing single-use water bottles could make an even bigger impact on the environment, health,

and wildlife than the negative one that plastic water bottles brought about.
 Works Cited

“Fact Sheet: Single Use Plastics.” ​Earth Day Network​, 10 Apr. 2018,

https://www.earthday.org/2018/03/29/fact-sheet-single-use-plastics/​.

Whitaker, Hannah. “How the Plastic Bottle Went from Miracle Container to Hated Garbage.”

National Geographic​, 18 Oct. 2019,

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/08/plastic-bottles/#close​.