In my senior year of high school, I briefly learned about the dangers and negatives of bottled water. This sparked my interest in the topic, which was furthered after discussion about it in an Environmental class I took last semester. Drinking bottled water has become way too normalized in society, and here are only a few of the reasons you should stop buying and drinking it.
First and foremost are the harmful environmental impacts that the plastic used for water bottles has on the environment. Creation of bottled water uses fossil fuels, which causes pollution and adds to global warming. On top of that, more than 17 million barrels of oil are used to create enough plastic water bottles to meet the annual demand for them in America. While most water bottles can be recycled after use, they pretty much never are. In the U.S., 86% of disposable water bottles are either thrown in the trash or littered. This results in 38 billion disposable water bottles in U.S. landfills. Then they’re washed into the ocean, where they kill 1.1 million sea creatures each year.
Another reason, which will benefit you more directly, is the cost of plastic water bottles versus tap water. As of 2022 according to Harvard Engineering and Utilities, tap water is $0.02 per gallon while bottled water is $0.64 per gallon, making bottled water about 3,000 percent more expensive per gallon than tap water. Finally, bottled water is tested for pollutants 4 times less than tap water and often contains toxins from the plastic.
Legislation is beginning in multiple parts of the world to ban disposable water bottles, and Massachusetts plays a really big role in stopping this issue. Retail bans of bottled water began in Concord in 2012, and have since been passed in 24 communities. On the other side of the country, the San Francisco Airport has banned sale of it in their terminals, which will eliminate 4 million plastic water bottles being sold each year. To save money, take part in saving our earth, and potentially preserving your health, stop buying and drinking from disposable plastic water bottles; and if you continue to use them, at LEAST recycle.
All of the aforementioned information can be found on one of the following websites:
https://green.harvard.edu/tools-resources/green-tip/reasons-avoid-bottled-water
https://www.sierraclub.org/massachusetts/plastic-beverage-containers