I did a lot of research and according to http://thewaterproject.org/bottled_water_wasteful the United States is overpopulated with plastic water bottles. The website mentions that it takes about 1000 years for these products to bio-degrade, only about 1 in 5 bottles are recycled, and landfills are overfilling with this waste. After looking at further sources, I realized how big of a difference we can make if we start using reusable water bottles. Schools should have students bring their own refillable bottles to class so that they can eventually throw out the vending machines filled with plastic. A way to raise awareness to this issue is to fund raise money to make more water bottle fillers. The amount of CO2 we can reduce by taking this action is dramatic. Not only is the bio-degrading releasing a large amount of CO2, but the shipment involved with this purchase causes a lot of transportation across the country. As you may have seen, an increase in transportation is brutal to the environment.What are some of your ideas to limit the plastic bottles sold?

Katia S, I agree that we should limit the amount of plastic water bottles we use as well as use reusable water bottles to lower the amount of waste. To answer your question, I did some local research to how San Franciscans are cutting down on their plastic water bottle use... In  buildings, airports, and parks they are installing water fountains and bottle-filling taps so people can conveniently refill their bottles. Perhaps this will promote other cities in the future (if they haven't already) to install these eco-friendly systems too.

A way to reduce water bottle waste that's already been implemented in South Australia is the bottle refund scheme. http://plasticwastesolutions.com/plastic-litter/ With the system, the bottle recycle rate there is 80%. It's not stopping people from using disposable water bottles, but it does encourage more recycling. Setting the bottle refund scheme will be more feasible than stopping the use of disposable bottles entirely. If the bottle refund scheme was run along with the incentives stated by Kira, we would be more effective in lowering the overall CO2 produced from these bottles.

I agree with you. I use my reusable water bottle everyday and it has been a great convenience. Tap water is cost-efficient and can be filtered at home. The production of plastic water bottles release toxins and fossil fuels into the air. Plastic water bottles also contain a substance called polyethylene terephthalate which is dangerous to humans. Using a refillable water bottle can also decrease your carbon footprint. Here are some other reasons to use reusable water bottles. http://www.banthebottle.net/articles/th … led-water/

Reusable water bottles are great! Specifically, biodegradable and stainless steel bottles are the best for our environment. I bring my reusable bottle to school everyday. I like it better then the disposable bottles as I can refill it whenever I need to.Often when drinking from plastic water bottles, we don't finish them for reasons such as forgetting which bottle is ours. About 2.5 million water bottles are thrown away by Americans every hour. That's 60 million water bottles a year and an impressive 21,900 bottles a year. Of these bottles, less than 30% are recycles. This means a great majority (about 70%) of our plastic water bottles end up in the trash. They will continue to build up in landfills as we continue to carelessly throw them out.  Plastic disposable water bottles are impacting our environment in a negative way which needs to change. http://www.greenbenefits.org/post/2011/ … ttles.aspx

Wow I did not know that when I recycle my water bottles that only 1 in 5 actually gets recycled and it takes that long to bio-degrade. I personally think to promote drinking water from reusable water bottles in school is that they could be given out at the beginning of the year and have water bottle refill stations around the school. Yes the water bill would go up but it would help the environment and keep kids hydrated and healthy.

I completely agree.  Plastic water bottles are extremely overused and most people are oblivious to the fact that they are really bad for the earth.  And the thing that makes it even worse is that most people dont even put them in the recycling bins so that they can at least be recycled.  Instead, they are just thrown into regular trash cans.  It would be very challenging for a school to completely shift from plastic to reusable water bottles.  I do agree with your theory however, but i feel that schools should not only encourage reusable water bottles, but also encourage recycling the plastic ones that students use.

I agree with this entirely. I would have never thought that less than 30% of plastic water bottles are recycled, that's shocking to me! Most schools and organizations just encourage for you to recycle plastic water bottles instead of maybe reusing that water bottle or buying a reusable water bottle that you could use for a long time and use for many different things!