Summary: Why Bottled Water Ruins Our Environment
Trieu Pham
Professor Pilch
English 100
12/11/13
Proposing a Solution: Why Bottled Water Ruins our Environment
Bottled water is a major contributor to the detriment of the environment, and there are many remedies to this issue. The consumption of bottled water is growing rapidly. It is purchased for a wide variety of purposes, varying from convenience to the accessibility and quality of potable water from public systems. As consumers, we are constantly on the go and are sold very highly on convenience. The question to ask is which alternative seems more appealing, water from the city tap or fresh mountain spring water that is nicely packaged for those on the go moments? However, looking at a study done in Cleveland, Ohio, when bottled …show more content…
water was compared to the tap water, it failed not only in taste tests, but in quality tests as well. Results like these are typical when testing bottled water against tap water. Is bottled water really any cleaner? In many ways bottled water is less regulated than tap water.
Is it any tastier? In taste tests people consistently choose tap over bottled water. Bottled water costs over two thousand times more than tap water. Can you imagine paying two thousand times the price of anything else? How about a ten thousand dollar sandwich? Yet the people of the United States buy over half a billion bottles of water a week. That is enough to circle the earth over 5 times. When bottled water came out most people thought that it was just a passing fad. There was no telling what effects bottled water would have on the general population and therefore had never raised any environmental issues until its sudden level of demand. However, over the years soft drinks companies marketed bottled water in a way that consumers began to believe it as a necessity. As these companies continued to pump water from public water sources and resell it back to the public, the level of pollution increased significantly due to the level of plastic used in production of the bottles. This convenience that was made for human kind has so far become an inconvenience to the environment, and as we progress we have begun to discover more and more environmental causes to disease and disruption. Could it be a possible indication …show more content…
that this so called convenience could one day become not just an inconvenience for the environment but also for mankind? The FDA establishes regulations on how bottled water should be labeled. Two main types of water dominate consumers: spring water and purified water. To be considered one of these types, all companies have to do is give further treatment to the already treated city water. In 2006 in the United States, approximately 44% of all bottled water originated as municipal water and is sold as ‘purified’ water, with the remaining 56% coming from protected springs or groundwater. Most of the purified water sales come from the three producers: the Coca-Cola Company, the Pepsi Cola Company, and Nestle. (Hemphill) The issue however is not just deception from bottling companies; it is the waste that comes along with it. Peter Gleick’s quotes the company Nestle in his book The World 's Water, Volume 7: The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources “bottled water is the most environmentally responsible consumer product in the world”; and, “Nestlé Pure Life is a Healthy, Eco-Friendly Choice”. Nestle proposes that they are environmentally responsible when they trash the environment all along the products life cycle. The problem starts with extraction and production where oil is used to make water bottles. In one year of making bottle water, it takes enough oil to fuel a million cars. (US) Energy is put into making the bottle and shipping it around the world. This hardly seems worth it for something we can finish in 2 minutes. Bottled water is a major source in the environmental issues that the United States has, and by using greener alternatives, this issue can be rid of. Disposal is on the other end of the products life cycle so cleaner methods should be provided. What happens to the bottle after it is used? 80% of the bottles sit in landfills. Since the bottles are “indestructible” they pile together for thousands of years in giant mountains. Would you buy the bottled of water if the mountains depicted were of the piles of plastic? Saying no to bottled water could make a huge difference. New solutions are made everyday. For example, the implementation of new and improved reusable bottles by students on college campuses. Steve Laporte, vice president of Continental Services expressed his excitement on Michigan College shifting to reusable bottles in an interview by CC Week: “They approached us and shared their vision with us. We were really excited to share the commitment because we have the same vision.” (Workman) Being environmental conscious is no longer a hippie trend. It is becoming something with a real future. Becoming proactive in the fight against pollution can be as easy as picking up a reusable bottle. There are no chemicals in a reusable bottle that can harm your body and it makes for a cleaner Earth. Who could say no to that? Michigan College is not the only place that believes that these bottles have a future. They were actually drawing inspiration from Nike and Apple campuses and four to five star hotels. People recognize the potential of these bottles, but the mainstream does not fully accept the technology: “It’s been a lot of fighting with the multinational (companies) ... it’s tough to breakthrough. The gatekeepers are very strong…Absent of a $10 million marketing campaign, how are we going to tell everyone?”(Workman) Companies like Continental Services have trouble in spreading their message due to a lack of resources. This is a great impasse in the progress of being “green.” Something we all can do is saying no to disposable bottle and requesting reusable ones. This makes it so small companies like Continental Services can spread their message without having to compromise their efforts in research. Requesting these bottles could eventually cause competition to the big bottle companies to want to make greener bottles. In order to promote an ongoing movement to protect the environment from such over pollution, it is imperative to create incentive to recycle the bottles that consumers purchase. One possible way to do so would be to provide payment of water bills in exchange for every water bottle turned in to the water companies. Many would be more inclined to do so with such an incentive, and therefore would contribute in decreasing the level of water bottle pollution. The Container Recycling Institute in the article "Bottle Bills Provide Financial Incentives for Recycling" explained how this process would work:
Because of the financial benefit, consumers who would ordinarily trash or litter their empty beverage containers may be inspired to take them to a facility for recycling, knowing that they 've already paid for the service and that is the only way to get back their money. Other consumers who do not find the deposit a great enough incentive might still discard their bottles and cans. But still others will take advantage of the law to scavenge the used containers and return them. Either way, litter and waste are reduced. This is quite significant considering how much bottled water contributes to the overall worldly pollution. (Bottle)
Because people invest in the bottles before hand with a CRV getting the money back is an incentive. This program makes it so that if someone were to decline recycling it would benefit another to do so. By making this a nationwide incentive the probability of increase in recycling grows dramatically. This incentive program appeals to not only those in need of money but to families as well. How? By making this a source for income families can make it an event to recycle together, in turn raising funds for family outings all while improving the environment. An incentive program for recycling is a win win for the consumer and the environment.
Just as effective as companies are in advertising their bottled water as the purest form of water that a consumer can drink, they can be just as effective in spreading the word on what consumers can do to prevent over pollution of the environment. In fact it should be mandatory to do so just as it is mandatory for these companies to spread the word and hire advocates on the effects on smoking. This concept is similar to that of cigarettes. Letting people know before hand might cause an aversion to bottled water. A a Chinese study done by BMC health shows the effectiveness of warning labels: “Compared with the old Chinese label, a higher proportion of participants said the new label provided clear information on harm caused by smoking (31.2% vs. 18.3%). Participants were less likely to give cigarettes with the new label on the package compared with the old label (25.2% vs. 20.8%).” (Qin) The new labels caused it so people knew exactly what they were doing; many chose to quit. If people knew that bottled water was less regulated than tap, then they would rather save their money to buy it. Improving the environment would be the aftermath of this. Warning labels will sway people from buying bottled water. Hopefully the bottled water companies would be hard press enough to change their habit and better the environment. Some may believe that bottled water does not make an impact on the environment.
The fact of the matter is that it does. The environmental issues of bottled water are quite strong. The pacific garbage patch is an island of plastic bottles. Since plastic does not decompose in water, the animals living in the ocean eat the particles. Fisherman catches this fish and people eat the fish. The chemicals within the bottle are now ingested not only by the consumer, but the by consumers families as well. Since many of the plastic particles are crumb sized clean up of the ocean is costly and difficult. This affects everyone. Instead of investing on costly research to clean up the patch, better investments on how to prevent the issue should have been
made.
Bottled water is a social phenomenon. People at the end of the day pay almost 2000 times more the cost of tap water for bottled water even though the products are virtual the same. In hindsight bottled water companies make a living off of just the container itself. It is costly to be convenient not only in the wallet but also to the environment. However, with new technology people can be less dependent on disposable bottles. By buying a reusable bottle a person is saying no to big bottle companies, causes competition to do better in these companies. Just think how much cleaner Earth would be if disposable bottles didn’t exist. Spreading the massage and banning together to say no to disposable bottles is a giant step in making the world cleaner. Because of efforts by the consumer to live greener, the big bottle companies are taking a hit. We see the today the bottles have become much less dependent on oils and harmful chemicals. Pretty soon, there could be none. More and more options against disposable bottles are being made. It is our job as a consumer to support these companies and make them the norm product. With continued efforts the bottle companies will either be forced into being greener, or to be shut down. With each passing year the companies take a hit from the green movement. Pretty soon it might be a social taboo to carry around a disposable bottle. After all it is “cool” to be green.
Work Cited
"Bottle Bills Provide Financial Incentives for Recycling." Container Recycling Institute,
01 Aug. 2013. Web. 14 Dec. 2013.
Gleick, Peter H. The World 's Water, Volume 7: The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources. Washington, DC: Island, 2012. Print.
Hemphill G 2007 Personal Communication Beverage Marketing Corporation December 10, 2013.Web.
Qin et al.: Reactions of Chinese Adults to Warning Labels on Cigarette Packages: A Survey in Jiangsu Province. BMC Public Health 2011 11:133.
"Refresh: Youth Bottling Out and Tapping into Public Water Systems." Inside the Bottle. Polaris Institute / The Ontario Turillium Foundation, n.d. Web. 10
Dec. 2013.
US Department of Energy (US DOE) 2007 Transportation Energy Indicators Washington, DC. December 10, 2013. Web.
WORKMAN, KAREN. "Green Water Bottles Come To A Michigan College." The Oakland Press (2011): 12. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Dec. 2013.
Professor Pilch
English 100
12/11/13
Proposing a Solution: Why Bottled Water Ruins our Environment
Bottled water is a major contributor to the detriment of the environment, and there are many remedies to this issue. The consumption of bottled water is growing rapidly. It is purchased for a wide variety of purposes, varying from convenience to the accessibility and quality of potable water from public systems. As consumers, we are constantly on the go and are sold very highly on convenience. The question to ask is which alternative seems more appealing, water from the city tap or fresh mountain spring water that is nicely packaged for those on the go moments? However, looking at a study done in Cleveland, Ohio, when bottled …show more content…
water was compared to the tap water, it failed not only in taste tests, but in quality tests as well. Results like these are typical when testing bottled water against tap water. Is bottled water really any cleaner? In many ways bottled water is less regulated than tap water.
Is it any tastier? In taste tests people consistently choose tap over bottled water. Bottled water costs over two thousand times more than tap water. Can you imagine paying two thousand times the price of anything else? How about a ten thousand dollar sandwich? Yet the people of the United States buy over half a billion bottles of water a week. That is enough to circle the earth over 5 times. When bottled water came out most people thought that it was just a passing fad. There was no telling what effects bottled water would have on the general population and therefore had never raised any environmental issues until its sudden level of demand. However, over the years soft drinks companies marketed bottled water in a way that consumers began to believe it as a necessity. As these companies continued to pump water from public water sources and resell it back to the public, the level of pollution increased significantly due to the level of plastic used in production of the bottles. This convenience that was made for human kind has so far become an inconvenience to the environment, and as we progress we have begun to discover more and more environmental causes to disease and disruption. Could it be a possible indication …show more content…
that this so called convenience could one day become not just an inconvenience for the environment but also for mankind? The FDA establishes regulations on how bottled water should be labeled. Two main types of water dominate consumers: spring water and purified water. To be considered one of these types, all companies have to do is give further treatment to the already treated city water. In 2006 in the United States, approximately 44% of all bottled water originated as municipal water and is sold as ‘purified’ water, with the remaining 56% coming from protected springs or groundwater. Most of the purified water sales come from the three producers: the Coca-Cola Company, the Pepsi Cola Company, and Nestle. (Hemphill) The issue however is not just deception from bottling companies; it is the waste that comes along with it. Peter Gleick’s quotes the company Nestle in his book The World 's Water, Volume 7: The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources “bottled water is the most environmentally responsible consumer product in the world”; and, “Nestlé Pure Life is a Healthy, Eco-Friendly Choice”. Nestle proposes that they are environmentally responsible when they trash the environment all along the products life cycle. The problem starts with extraction and production where oil is used to make water bottles. In one year of making bottle water, it takes enough oil to fuel a million cars. (US) Energy is put into making the bottle and shipping it around the world. This hardly seems worth it for something we can finish in 2 minutes. Bottled water is a major source in the environmental issues that the United States has, and by using greener alternatives, this issue can be rid of. Disposal is on the other end of the products life cycle so cleaner methods should be provided. What happens to the bottle after it is used? 80% of the bottles sit in landfills. Since the bottles are “indestructible” they pile together for thousands of years in giant mountains. Would you buy the bottled of water if the mountains depicted were of the piles of plastic? Saying no to bottled water could make a huge difference. New solutions are made everyday. For example, the implementation of new and improved reusable bottles by students on college campuses. Steve Laporte, vice president of Continental Services expressed his excitement on Michigan College shifting to reusable bottles in an interview by CC Week: “They approached us and shared their vision with us. We were really excited to share the commitment because we have the same vision.” (Workman) Being environmental conscious is no longer a hippie trend. It is becoming something with a real future. Becoming proactive in the fight against pollution can be as easy as picking up a reusable bottle. There are no chemicals in a reusable bottle that can harm your body and it makes for a cleaner Earth. Who could say no to that? Michigan College is not the only place that believes that these bottles have a future. They were actually drawing inspiration from Nike and Apple campuses and four to five star hotels. People recognize the potential of these bottles, but the mainstream does not fully accept the technology: “It’s been a lot of fighting with the multinational (companies) ... it’s tough to breakthrough. The gatekeepers are very strong…Absent of a $10 million marketing campaign, how are we going to tell everyone?”(Workman) Companies like Continental Services have trouble in spreading their message due to a lack of resources. This is a great impasse in the progress of being “green.” Something we all can do is saying no to disposable bottle and requesting reusable ones. This makes it so small companies like Continental Services can spread their message without having to compromise their efforts in research. Requesting these bottles could eventually cause competition to the big bottle companies to want to make greener bottles. In order to promote an ongoing movement to protect the environment from such over pollution, it is imperative to create incentive to recycle the bottles that consumers purchase. One possible way to do so would be to provide payment of water bills in exchange for every water bottle turned in to the water companies. Many would be more inclined to do so with such an incentive, and therefore would contribute in decreasing the level of water bottle pollution. The Container Recycling Institute in the article "Bottle Bills Provide Financial Incentives for Recycling" explained how this process would work:
Because of the financial benefit, consumers who would ordinarily trash or litter their empty beverage containers may be inspired to take them to a facility for recycling, knowing that they 've already paid for the service and that is the only way to get back their money. Other consumers who do not find the deposit a great enough incentive might still discard their bottles and cans. But still others will take advantage of the law to scavenge the used containers and return them. Either way, litter and waste are reduced. This is quite significant considering how much bottled water contributes to the overall worldly pollution. (Bottle)
Because people invest in the bottles before hand with a CRV getting the money back is an incentive. This program makes it so that if someone were to decline recycling it would benefit another to do so. By making this a nationwide incentive the probability of increase in recycling grows dramatically. This incentive program appeals to not only those in need of money but to families as well. How? By making this a source for income families can make it an event to recycle together, in turn raising funds for family outings all while improving the environment. An incentive program for recycling is a win win for the consumer and the environment.
Just as effective as companies are in advertising their bottled water as the purest form of water that a consumer can drink, they can be just as effective in spreading the word on what consumers can do to prevent over pollution of the environment. In fact it should be mandatory to do so just as it is mandatory for these companies to spread the word and hire advocates on the effects on smoking. This concept is similar to that of cigarettes. Letting people know before hand might cause an aversion to bottled water. A a Chinese study done by BMC health shows the effectiveness of warning labels: “Compared with the old Chinese label, a higher proportion of participants said the new label provided clear information on harm caused by smoking (31.2% vs. 18.3%). Participants were less likely to give cigarettes with the new label on the package compared with the old label (25.2% vs. 20.8%).” (Qin) The new labels caused it so people knew exactly what they were doing; many chose to quit. If people knew that bottled water was less regulated than tap, then they would rather save their money to buy it. Improving the environment would be the aftermath of this. Warning labels will sway people from buying bottled water. Hopefully the bottled water companies would be hard press enough to change their habit and better the environment. Some may believe that bottled water does not make an impact on the environment.
The fact of the matter is that it does. The environmental issues of bottled water are quite strong. The pacific garbage patch is an island of plastic bottles. Since plastic does not decompose in water, the animals living in the ocean eat the particles. Fisherman catches this fish and people eat the fish. The chemicals within the bottle are now ingested not only by the consumer, but the by consumers families as well. Since many of the plastic particles are crumb sized clean up of the ocean is costly and difficult. This affects everyone. Instead of investing on costly research to clean up the patch, better investments on how to prevent the issue should have been
made.
Bottled water is a social phenomenon. People at the end of the day pay almost 2000 times more the cost of tap water for bottled water even though the products are virtual the same. In hindsight bottled water companies make a living off of just the container itself. It is costly to be convenient not only in the wallet but also to the environment. However, with new technology people can be less dependent on disposable bottles. By buying a reusable bottle a person is saying no to big bottle companies, causes competition to do better in these companies. Just think how much cleaner Earth would be if disposable bottles didn’t exist. Spreading the massage and banning together to say no to disposable bottles is a giant step in making the world cleaner. Because of efforts by the consumer to live greener, the big bottle companies are taking a hit. We see the today the bottles have become much less dependent on oils and harmful chemicals. Pretty soon, there could be none. More and more options against disposable bottles are being made. It is our job as a consumer to support these companies and make them the norm product. With continued efforts the bottle companies will either be forced into being greener, or to be shut down. With each passing year the companies take a hit from the green movement. Pretty soon it might be a social taboo to carry around a disposable bottle. After all it is “cool” to be green.
Work Cited
"Bottle Bills Provide Financial Incentives for Recycling." Container Recycling Institute,
01 Aug. 2013. Web. 14 Dec. 2013.
Gleick, Peter H. The World 's Water, Volume 7: The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources. Washington, DC: Island, 2012. Print.
Hemphill G 2007 Personal Communication Beverage Marketing Corporation December 10, 2013.Web.
Qin et al.: Reactions of Chinese Adults to Warning Labels on Cigarette Packages: A Survey in Jiangsu Province. BMC Public Health 2011 11:133.
"Refresh: Youth Bottling Out and Tapping into Public Water Systems." Inside the Bottle. Polaris Institute / The Ontario Turillium Foundation, n.d. Web. 10
Dec. 2013.
US Department of Energy (US DOE) 2007 Transportation Energy Indicators Washington, DC. December 10, 2013. Web.
WORKMAN, KAREN. "Green Water Bottles Come To A Michigan College." The Oakland Press (2011): 12. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Dec. 2013.