Bottled Water Killing us all?
An article in the Chicago Sun Times in April did a great job helping us get the word out about how bottled water is made, how it hurts the environment, and how recycling these bottles is a massive waste of energy. Click here to read the article. However, while I hate to poke holes in people’s work; it’s high time people start writing correct information, not just information that makes sense.
In the 3rd paragraph of the article, recycling is brought up. She explains that PET bottles are recyclable, but it does no good because only 1 out of every five bottles is actually recycled. She leads us to believe that this is because consumers just don’t care and are throwing them away. This is a HUGE mis-statement for 2 reasons:
1. Plastic bottles actually cost more money and use more energy to recycle than they do to make a new one. While it’s great to recycle, there are very few groups that are going to do much recycling if it makes no monetary sense. In fact, the only people that will do that is the government (obviously). At the end of the day we have to pay for the waste of money. Until it catches on in the private sector, or until some of these “activist groups” figure out a way to start raising money for the high cost of recycling, it’s never going to be a really good alternative.
2. Still not convinced? Well, this will stick the final nail in the coffin. What if we got everybody to recycle? What if we started a massive global-wide recycling program and every bottled used went into recycled bottles? Perfect, right? Wrong. According to the regulations regarding food products in the US, only 5% to 10% of the material used in making plastic bottles can be from recycled material. It’s called “food-grade plastic” and has been a requirement for decades. It makes us all safe when we use the products, which is the idea. If all the bottles were recycled, we would just be creating a lot of material we can’t use. The new bottles are still being created, and must eventually be thrown away.
The only real option we have is to re-use the same bottles. Get a water filter bottle or portable water filter and filter your own water. You can make your own great-tasting water directly from the tap, it saves money, and saves the environment. The best part, if everybody used water bottle filters we wouldn’t need bottled water anymore! How great would that be?
