Bottled Water

The bottled water users may claim that the bottles can be recycled and reused, so it is alright use them, but the reality is that only two of every eight bottles end up in the recycle bin while the rest of them end up in the heaps of garbage, leaching toxicants into the ground. The process of recycling the bottles is not that easy either as it is thought to be. Certain municipalities recycle only certain types of plastic bottles.  Burning the plastic bottles to get rid of them is not a wise option because the bottles produce harmful byproducts like chlorine gas and heavy metals that pollute the air. To bury them is not a prudent choice either because the buried plastic bottles can take more than one thousand years to biodegrade. In short, there is no efficient way to get rid of plastic.

Although some Chinese scientists found a plastic eating bacteria called Aspergillus Tubingensis in the heap of garbage in Pakistan, it is still a long way to remove all the plastic from the environment that human beings have been polluting over the years People believe that the bottled water is better and safer than the tap water. This belief is because of the propaganda by the bottled water selling companies.

The modern researchers have proven their claim wrong. The most famous of these studies is the one conducted by WWF. It shows that the quality of tap water in Europe and the United States is regulated on the daily bases while the companies “Who base their marketing strategies on the purity of their products,” usually hide away occasional impurity. Moreover, the material that is used to make the plastic bottles transfers certain toxic particles to the water that can cause different diseases.

For instance, Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics are the main components of the water bottles. PET bottles gradually replaced the PVC (polyvinyl chloride) because it was unbreakable, light and transparent containers. PET is recyclable, but they photodegrade instead of biodegrading. Photodegrade means that over time they split up into smaller fragments. These fragments can transfer from the PET wall of the bottle to the water. They may also absorb pollutants that contaminate our watercourses, soil, and cause harm to the animals which, in turn, harm us when we eat these animals or drink that water. Antimony and acetaldehyde are two well-known chemicals found in the water contained in PET bottles that are harmful. The fragments also absorb organic pollutants like Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) and Bisphenol A (BPA) which take hundreds of years to decompose Bisphenol A makes the bottle transparent and hard. It has been proven to be a cause of certain types of cancer, early puberty in girls, neurological difficulties, reduced fertility in women, defects in newborn babies, and premature labor. The primary source of BPA in the body is through exposure to bottle drinks.