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http://www.treehugger.com/clean-water/the-us-consumes-1500-plastic-water-bottles-every-second-a-fact-by-watershed.html
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Plastic Bottles, a HUGE problem
As I was searching for a topic to write about for this blog post I found myself looking at the plastic water bottle sitting on my desk. When I'm drinking from my water bottle I don't really tend to think about the consequences that they hold for the environment. According to Treehugger.com the US consumes 1500 bottles of water every second! An even more disturbing fact is that 80% of these bottles used end up in landfills instead of being recycled. Plastic water bottles are one of the leading causes of pollution because they end up in nature and cannot be naturally broken down. Even when they do end up in landfills the energy used to break them down and the chemicals that are burned into the atmosphere are not good for the environment. To me, it is very saddening that this is happening and that we as the American people are so passive about it. We could take simple steps to reduce the number of water and other plastic bottles being sent into landfills but many of us don't take those few steps. There are some that do and I commend them for that but for many of us it is not a concern of ours. The harsh reality is that it should be on our minds because we have to live in this world and every time we carelessly send a plastic bottle to the landfill we are hurting our planet and in turn hurting ourselves. Each one of us needs to take the responsibility and step up make a difference. Each and every one of us that decides to make a change is making a huge impact and it will pay off for everyone!
Sources:
http://www.treehugger.com/clean-water/the-us-consumes-1500-plastic-water-bottles-every-second-a-fact-by-watershed.html
http://www.treehugger.com/clean-water/the-us-consumes-1500-plastic-water-bottles-every-second-a-fact-by-watershed.html
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Dear Erica,
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that you should post about plastic water bottles affecting the environment. I just did research on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It's a huge landfill of plastic in the ocean, about twice the size of Texas. And plastic is a huge problem.
I like that you mentioned that plastic doesn't biodegrade. What plastics do is photodegrade. That just means that all the plastics do is get smaller and smaller, instead of breaking down into simpler chemical compounds.
I empathize with your sadness at the lack of concern. You're right, we do live on this earth, and we're the ones killing it. Have you seen Wall-E? That's a cute movie, but it's what I imagine will happen to earth eventually. It's already starting. And people still don't care.
You brought up some great points in this blog post. I look forward to your future posts!