According to Banthebottle.net, 86% of water bottles end up in landfills across The United States. It also says that it can take up to 700 years for plastic water bottles to decompose. To help these horrific numbers, people can use reusable water bottles and tap water. However I also realize that sometimes you have to use single use water bottles because of certain events such as earthquakes and hurricanes.

source: https://www.banthebottle.net/articles/p … tal-risks/

I agree that we need to be careful in using water bottles. I agree that reusable water bottles are a great way to decrease the waste of plastic water bottles. If single use plastic water bottles are the only water bottles available at the time, don't throw them in the trash at least. Rather than trashing the single use plastic water bottle, recycle it. The plastic can be used again for another purpose. This helps decrease waste numbers, and helps in conserving some plastic resources.

These are very good ideas on how to conserve! I think we as a society need to stop trying to take the quickest easiest path which may be getting a plastic water bottle, and instead go out of our way to look at the big picture which would be refilling a reusable water bottle. By only using reusable water bottles you can eliminate your household’s plastic water bottle waste entirely.

I agree that we need to stop using plastic bottles because they can cause harm to marine life and they create large amounts of waste. According to The World Counts, appoximately 1,500 water bottles are thrown into the ocean and landfills per second. At my school, they give everyone a reusable water bottle. There are also water fountains that are meant specifically for refilling these bottles. This encourages students to refill their bottles instead of using a plastic bottle once. If other schools started to do this, it would decrease the number of water bottles thrown away drastically.

http://www.theworldcounts.com/stories/B … aste_Facts

It is a good idea to recycle the plastic water bottles, but some neighborhoods do not have recycling pick up. They just have trash pick up. I agree that we need to stop using water bottles but instead of recycling then, we can repurpose them. We can use them like they are a reusable water bottle. This indirectly helps the environment because you don't have to drive to a recycling center if your neighborhood does not have recycling pick up.

   If a neighborhood does not have a set day to pick up recycled goods, a whole new problem is created. This problem is the problem of using your car to drive to the recycling center. This increases the transportation part of your carbon footprint, which is already very high.

   I understand that the idea of recycling water bottles can help one problem, but at the same time, it can create a whole new one.

I do agree with these posts about limiting our plastic bottle use.  I believe that to do this, we must be honest with ourselves.  Unfortunately, I am constantly using plastic water bottles as they are easy to grab on the go.  This I want to change after reading an article titled “What’s the Problem with Plastic Bottles?”  Plastic water bottles are made with BPA and phthalates, which can cause numerous health problems in men and women.  These problems include cancer, gender development complications, and early births.  Now, what happens after we are finished with these bottles?  They often just sit in landfills, which builds up waste.  The caps can be found in our oceans, where animals will feed on them and suffer severe health issues.  To prevent these issues, we can invest in a reusable water bottle.  By doing this, we can reduce the waste of plastic water bottles and avoid several heath issues.
Source:
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsan … c-bottles/