just how out of hand this issue is getting. In many places in our oceans, there are hundreds of thousands of water bottles floating in the water. Plastic usually takes about 450 years to decompose and if this high rate of bottled water usage continues, there will soon be more bottled water in the ocean than there are actual fish. I believe there are three things that can be done to help reduce the manufacturing of plastic bottled water and where these bottles end up. These things are: increasing water bills for every state in the US, increasing the cost of manufacturing bottles for water, and potentially banning the selling plastic water bottles.
In the United States, there are currently only 11 states with water bills.
The water bill is basically charging extra for the bottle and returning that charge to you when you return this bottle. This is the incentive for recycling plastic bottles or even glass bottles. However, out of these 11 states, only 6 of them include bottled water. If the government passes this water bill for every state and included plastic water bottles, it would greatly increase the amount of these bottles being recycled. With more bottles being recycled, there will be far less of them going in oceans and building to the damage of our environment.
To manufacture a plastic bottle, the cost usually varies from 1 to 3 cents. Not dollars but cents. In the US, the cost is about 2 cents, including the fuel and labor required to make the bottle. Water companies know how much plastic negatively affects the environment, yet they continue to make it for the profit. The government must know about these terrible effects that plastic has on our world, so why haven’t they increased these costs for plastic manufacturers? The cost of products needed to make plastic must be increased in order to reduce the amount of plastic bottles being made
everyday.
In many cities in the world, selling plastic water bottles have been banned completely. San Francisco and Toronto are a few places that have banned plastic bottles and they have even started banning plastic bags also. I believe this is a step in the right direction because the more cities that ban plastic, the faster we can stop the destruction of our environment. Many animals are already endangered, such as leatherback turtles and hawksbill turtles. These two animals are almost extinct in the wild because of the rising amount of plastic in the oceans. More people need to get behind this movement to stop the production of plastic bottles before the world runs out of time and more species end up extinct.
In conclusion, the government needs to pass the water bill for every state in the US and include plastic bottles for this. This will increase the incentive for people as they will want to recycle old plastic bottles to get back some money and help protect the environment. Also, the items needed to manufacture a plastic bottle need to increase. If the costs to make a bottle are higher, manufacturer's won’t want to make as much bottles so they will cut back on the production thus helping the environment by not making anymore dangerous plastic. Finally, more cities must start banning the selling of all things plastic, especially plastic bottles. By doing so, this will greatly reduce the amount of plastic that goes into the ocean everyday and the world can start the cleaning up process of these hazardous plastic bottles.