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Senior Paper:The Plastic Water Problem BY Lexy Rinehart Yampah Mountain High School 2015 Do you ever wonder what happens to all the plastic bottles you throw away? People should stop using one-use plastic bottles. People should stop using plastic bottles for the following reasons: plastic bottles are not biodegradable, there are many dangers involved in using plastic bottles, it can harm animals, and it produces a lot of unnecessary waste. Dr B Victor is known for saying the first plastic was invented around 153 years ago, yet it still had time to evolve. If we knew about the dangers of plastic back then, maybe we wouldn’t have gone through with its production. Almost anything can be made out of plastic, wherever you are you can find something that has plastic in it. Plastic has come a long way since the 1800s, so far actually that we use it every single day. Non-biodegradable means that an object does not breakdown on its own. “Bottles used to package water take over 1,000 years to bio-degrade and if incinerated, they produce toxic fumes. It is estimated that over 80% of all single-use water bottles used in the U.S. simply become "litter"” (Bottled Water Is). The problem with non-biodegradable plastics is that when the plastic does not degrade it emits toxins. According to Dr. Victor. B a lot of the time plastic bottles do not reach the landfills, instead they collect in our parks and forests. If you wonder what the problem is with this, you have to look a little deeper. Do you want to inhale toxic chemicals that are emitted from these plastics? No you do not. As long as plastic bottles are on the ground, they are harming everything including the land, people, and animals. Do you know about the dangers of plastic? Plastic is flammable, and if it happens to get caught on fire then it emits toxic chemicals. “Plastic can contaminate foods with dangerous chemical compounds” (B. Victor). “Toxic chemicals contained in plastics cause neurological problems, cancer, birth defects, hormonal changes gastric ulcer, thyroid problems and cardiovascular disease” (B Victor). The chemicals in plastic start to leach into your water while the water sits in the plastic bottle, and then you drink it. When you drink that water you also digest all of the chemicals that could make you ill. “Antimony, which is found in PET plastic bottles, in small doses can cause dizziness and depression; in larger doses it can cause nausea, vomiting and death” (Bottled Water Facts). Would you drink a bottle of gasoline or any other chemical? Then why would you want to drink water out of a plastic bottle when you could get your water from the tap, or even an at home water filter, which would be healthier and cheaper. Not only is plastic dangerous after it is made, it is also dangerous while it is being produced. “The manufacture of plastics in industries releases huge quantities of carbon monoxide, dioxin, hydrogen cyanide and VOCs” (B Victor). That is a problem because even if you do not use plastic, you are still harmed by its production. We breathe air, along with the other animals on our planet, expecting it to be clean. We do not expect to breathe in toxins from the production of plastic, or other products that can cause respiratory illnesses. According to Dr. B Victor It also causes problems in our soil by making it infertile. If the soil is infertile it will make it so we will not be able to grow food, which starts a bad chain reaction. It would begin with causing the plants to become smaller, then turn into no plants being able to grow in the poisoned soil. Plastic bottles can also harm animals. Including the animals we love, like our dogs, cats, birds, and other pets. When we throw out our plastic bottles they can break into tiny pieces that are then mistaken as food and digested by animals, which can result in intestinal problems, or even death. Plastic pieces also flood the oceans and are digested by marine animals. This is causing many problems in our food chain because we eat the fish, and are then poisoned by it because they have been digesting plastic and we are digesting them. Not only does it affect us, but it also affects the other mammals that eat the fish including bears, and polar bears. The fish eating all those tiny pieces of plastic are then also digested by whales, seals, penguins, and dolphins, which are also harmed or even killed by the chemicals that are released into their bodies from the plastic. Many birds also die because of the plastic. You will find a lot of plastic in some bird’s stomachs if you look inside. Not only does the finished plastic harm the animals, the making of plastic harms animals and people. Just like us the animals breathe in the chemicals. All the chemicals that plastic bottles are made from pollute the air and the water, causing a very bad chain reaction with the food chain for both humans and animals. If this does not get fixed animals are going to start dying off one by one. Furthermore, the impact on people, especially in third world countries, can be devastating. According to Public Citizen, The World Bank has predicted that by 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population will run short of fresh drinking water. Multinational companies are ready to capitalize on the crisis by finding water-starved regions and selling plastic bottled water to them. Plastic is inexpensive for the companies to produce and third world countries are desperate for clean drinking water. According to DoSomething.org, “Almost 2 in 3 people who need safe drinking water survive on a total income of $2 per day.” Their statistics also show that, “884 million people in the world lack access to safe water and 840,000 people die each year from water-related disease (www.DoSomething.org). Instead of protecting existing supplies and helping vulnerable populations, more and more government officials throughout the world are turning to privatization of their countries water supply by transferring the control of precious water resources from the public sector to large corporations (Public Citizen, 2015). According to the article, Water for All, “corporate agendas are driven by profits rather than the public good and deals that government agencies make with water companies include exclusive distribution rights for 25 to 30 years” (Public Citizen, 2015). The article explains that once a government agency hands over its water system to a private company, withdrawing from the agreement border on the impossible. This practice leaves the poor people with no access to clean water. They are forced to by bottled water from the companies with whom the government has made the deal. Then, what are the people supposed to do with all the empty water bottles? Many of the poorest countries on the planet do not have the infrastructure necessary to deal with the disposal of the water bottles, so the people have no alternative choice than to just throw them on the ground or into our oceans. The practice of selling of single-use water bottles to people who are in need of clean drinking water should be banned. Instead their governments should focus on the best interest of their communities, not the profits of American corporations. Creating ways for people to have access to clean drinking water in third world countries can be complicated and problematic, but why do American need to continue using single-use water bottles? How many plastic non-reusable bottles are used every year by each average American? According to the article Bottled Water Facts, The answer is about 167, but only 38 are recycled. That means only about 23% of plastic bottles are recycled. There are over two million tons of plastic bottles found in landfills. Our landfills are already overfilled as it is, we do not need unnecessary single use items, like the plastic bottles, flooding the landfills. There are alternatives to once use plastic bottles, including metal or glass reusable bottles. Plastic bottles are also very wasteful in the sense of wasting water. “It is estimated that actually 3 liters of water is used to package 1 liter of bottled water” (Bottled Water is). There are some positive aspects to plastic. For example, plastic is fairly cheap to produce, bottles can be as cheap as 25 cents per bottle. Which is very cheap for many companies, and companies are about making money. Making the cheapest product is not worth ruining our health or our environment. Also the fact that it is light in weight and can be molded into anything is really good about plastic, but there are many other materials you could make bottles with that would be cheap and biodegradable. Companies need to quit taking the cheap way out, a lot of people would not mind spending a couple extra cents to insure their, or their children’s safety. Also the regulations met by the bottled water companies are ridiculous. “In the U.S., public water is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which requires multiple daily tests for bacteria and makes results available to the public. The Food and Drug Administration, which regulates bottled water, only requires weekly testing and does not share its findings with the EPA or the public” (Bottled Water Facts) We should quit using single use plastic bottles. They can be very harmful to our environment and the living organisms in it. Plastic is also toxic and we are digesting it through our food chain. We should stop the privatization of water in third world countries and the World Bank should loan money to the governments so they can secure the public access to clean, drinkable water. One person can make a difference, as you saw each American averages over 100 plastic bottles a year. There are many options when it comes to portable water containers that you can use to replace one-use plastic bottles. Do you think 100 bottles can make a difference? I do. Work Cited B, Victor, Dr. "Plastic Impacts on the Natural Environment." Plastic Impacts on the Natural Environment. 2015. Web. 07 Apr. 2015. "Bottled Water Facts." Ban The Bottle. 2013. Web. 05 Apr. 2015. "Bottled Water Is Wasteful." The Water Project. 2015. Web. 05 Apr. 2015. Singh, Aashima. "Biodegradable and Non-Biodegradable Materials - Earth Untouched." Earth Untouched. 06 Oct. 2014. Web. 07 Apr. 2015 “Top 10 Reasonss to Oppose Water Privatization” Water for All. 2015. Web. 12 May. 2015 http://www.citizen.org/documents/top10-reasonstoopposewaterprivatization.pdf |