Lots of Bottle

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Lots of Bottle
by Dharmendra Kapri \| 17-03-2015 01:55 0
If you wonder around the supermarket you will find row upon row of bottled water in the drinks aisle. We?re so fortunate in India to have clean, safe water on tap. So why do people buy it bottled? Last week I was reading a Britain based article on the bottled water. According to that article, In Britain at least one and a half billion liters of bottled water are drunk each year and Every year people in Britain together spend about 2 billion pounds on bottled water. Bottled water still has many disadvantages to be aware of- To be specific, the real disadvantages are with plastic bottled water. Plastic is an issue not only because it cause chemical change to your drinking water but it also has a massive effect on our environment. There are 50 billion water bottles consumed globally each year. Around 30 billion of them are consumed in the US which shows that Americans are about 60% responsible for the problem while being 4% of the global population. That?s 1,500 water bottles consumed every second in US. The real irony to all of this is the fact that we all have access to very inexpensive water at home with our tap water. Of course these days tap water is full of toxins such as fluoride and chlorine, however with home purification system readily available, it?s quite easy to ensure a clean fresh supply of drinking water without the plastic waste. Let?s take a look at the cold hard facts- Myth: Bottled water tastes better! Well sometimes- but blindfold taste tests have shown, people can?t always tell the difference between them and many prefer the taste of tap water. In a world where one out of eight people don?t have access to safe drinking water, it seems crazy that some of us will pay to have bottles water when we have perfectly good water from the tap! Myth: Bottled water is safer than tap water- Not true. In fact, the majority of evidence shows that it?s worse for your health than purified tap water. Bottled water labels often have a picture of a pristine sparkling lake or a fresh mountain tap. Yet buying bottled comes with a high environmental cost. Did you know?- Some brands of tap water are actually just filtered tap water! It just costs a lot more! Making the bottles- A million tons of plastic was used in one year to make all the water bottles. Plastic is made from oil – so in one year enough energy was used to fuel a million cars for a whole year! Transporting the water- Lots of Lorries are used to transport them which makes a lot of air pollution. Bottles of waste- The problem starts when empty bottles are not disposed properly. Due to this, waste problem has been attributed to bottled water. High percentage of bottles ends up in landfills and trash cans and this causes harmful effects to the environment. Manufacturing bottles requires lots of resources not unless these are recyclable or reusable. If not, serious waste problem can be expected. But we recycle, so it?s all good- right? 80% of the water bottles bought in the United States don?t get recycled. Instead they end up in landfills which is the absolute worst place for them to be. So for every 10 bottles purchased only 2 of them will be recycled. Tap Water a More Eco-friendly Choice- Reducing our bottled water consumption in favor of more eco-friendly alternatives can help us tap into big savings and a cleaner environment. What can we do? Don?t buy bottled water. There is a simple solution: buy a fantastic water filter and a glass water bottle. Ask for the tap water in restaurants. There is an exception- In some countries where the water quality is poor, then you have no option but to drink bottled water.

Former E-gen Ambassador Dharmendra Kapri

6 Comments

says :
Thanks for the report...very very informative...........Nice work my dear, and thanks for Sharing..........keep spreading the Green messages
Posted 19-03-2015 03:36

Rohan Kapur says :
Well reported Dharmendra.
Practically all are using plastic bottles & it is difficult to stop everybody from using this easily available item.
I have taken up to collect & recycle as many plastic bottles as I can & I'm happy to report that I've succeeded in recycling thousands of them so far.
I feel that recycling must be made mandatory for all plastic bottles. Nobody should be allowed to throw it in garbage.
This may ease the situation to a greater extent & offer a solution to this menace.
Posted 18-03-2015 21:18

says :
Dear Dharmendra, No Doubt, Tap Water is the best solution (where feasible).
In Nepal also most of the people use tap water directly for drinking purpose. But due to certain myths like bottled water is much tastier, healthier etc. the use of bottled water is increasing these days especially in the cafeteria.
Plastic plastic plastics everywhere. Let's say no to plastic bottled water, use your own metal or glass bottles.
Think sustainable, live green :)
Posted 18-03-2015 01:13

says :
Dear Arushi, I am very glad to hear that your family switched to water purification system and no more plastic bottles to worry about :)
Posted 18-03-2015 00:53

Arushi Madan says :
Thanks for highlighting an imp issue here. You know till 2 years ago we were also using bottled water. Then on 1st Jan 2014 as my new year green step , I requested my parents to go for water filter system and get rid of plastic bottles . We installed waster purification system and have NOT been using plastic bottles since then .
Posted 17-03-2015 19:27