I love to go Spinning at my local gym and I always bring my reusable water bottle. But I notice that about 80% of the other spinners in my class have plastic bottles. Why waste money on plastic bottles, when you can have a reusable one for life?! On top of that, I consider the toxins in bottled water since they have been sitting in a warehouse for who knows how long. However, it took me a while to start thinking this way and what now seems like common sense to me is still a developing thought for many others. I feel many people are still unaware of the impact of plastic bottles or they just don't care. And for our sake, I hope it's not the latter.
Plastic bottles (plastic in general) are NOT good for you or the environment. This is not the 1990's when many of us just didn't know and figured plastic bottles were the next best thing since slice bread! They are convenient and you can buy them anywhere filled with all your favorite drinks! But does the convenience outweigh their damaging implications? Have you thought about the amount of plastic bottles wasted...not recycled? The ones thrown in the trash, filling up the landfills or thrown on the street and into the oceans? Although it seems we've developed an "out of sight out of mind" mentality, this issue has a very REAL and great impact on our Earth.
Here is Green-buzz.net's list of plastic facts. Honestly these facts can't be reiterated enough.
1. Plastic needs about 450 just to start decomposing. Then, it takes another 50-80 years to decompose completely.
2. That means that every single produced piece of plastic has not decomposed yet.
3. The average American consumed 1.6 gallons of bottled water in 1976. In 2006, that number jumped to 28.3 gallons. Fortunately, the total weight of the bottles was reduced during that period.
4. Even 40% of the total house plastic waste of average American family is due to the use of plastic bottles.
5. Another interesting fact about plastics and your money: 90% of the price you pay for the bottled water goes to the plastic bottle, while the water cost you only 10% of the money you give.
6. The average American buys 167 bottles of water per year, avoiding using any alternatives.
7. 24 million gallons of oil are needed for producing of billion plastic bottles.
8. Only 25 recycled bottles are enough to make one adult’s fleece jacket.
9. Europeans are not that interested in recycling. They currently recycle only 2.5% of the plastic bottles they use.
10. Sad but true, the worldwide fishing industry throws huge amounts of plastic garbage in the oceans. Amazing 150,000 tons go into the water every year, including packaging, plastic nets, lines and buoys.
11. This thrash causes death of many animals in the seas, which mistake the garbage for food. Estimations say that the number of killed animals is over one million.
12. Over 13 billion of plastic bags are produced every year, which are about 300 per adult. A number of 300 bags for 365 days are just too much!
13. In recent years the plastic recycling business in the United States is nearly tripled. There are more than 1600 businesses involved in recycling plastics.
14. However, the recycling rate remains steady at 27% (in United States), as the production of the plastics grows.
15. Recycling a single plastic bottle can conserve enough energy to light a 60W bulb for up to 6 hours.
16. Recycling plastics can save up to 2/3 of the needed energy for producing plastic from raw materials.
17. Four out of five bags in the United States are plastic.
18. Surveys show that more than 90 percent of consumers reuse their plastic bags at least once for things like wastebasket lines or lunch totes.
19. Bottling and shipping water is the least energy efficient method ever used to supply water. Unfortunately, it remains the most popular one.
20. There are many countries which have banned or restricted the use of plastic bags. Australia, China, Austria, Bangladesh, Ireland and several European Union countries are among them.
Greenistas just start thinking "resuable"!
