Hello Convenience

Jessica Rettler
4-19-2011
Hello Convenience, Goodbye Planet Earth
Purchasing bottled water has been made to the ultimate convenience. It is the most indispensable item within our culture. It’s found in lunchboxes at school, in hallways and classrooms, and sold at every basketball game in the country. The sole purpose of bottled water was to infuse how healthy it is to consume the wonderful natural resource of H20 that has come from this Earth. Water itself helps regulate the body’s temperature and provide necessary nutrients to organs. Water also helps transport oxygen to cells and protects joints and organ function. The body is benefitting in all kinds of ways by drinking water, but the Earth is not benefitting at all by not recycling these plastic bottles and not using them in any reusable kinds of ways. According to Jordan Chris from Earth911 Facts, nearly 26 billion plastic bottles are thrown away each year. These bottles are not biodegradable and could sit in landfills for longer than your lifetime. It is now more than ever to focus on being healthy to our body as well as to the Earth that can sustain it.
One of the best ways to resolve the water bottle crisis is to not buy bottled water at all! Purchasing a reusable water bottle is nearly as convenient as buying a plastic water bottle, but will save a person thousands of dollars over a lifetime. According to MSN Health Aware, the average person in America purchases 170 plastic water bottles a year. By dwindling that number down not only saves someone money, but is helping reduce landfills nationwide. It is so easy for a person to go to a store and pick up a bottle of water, that consciously, no one is even aware of the effects of that one bottle. Recycling water bottles is an entirely other matter. In 2005, Nubious Water Bottle Facts reported only 15% of water bottles were actually recycled, the rest were dumped away clogging landfills nationwide.
With landfills continually filling and overflowing, there are bound to be mishaps with garbage deposits near or around the ocean. With known whereabouts, but with no one to blame, the Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch is something everyone should be acquainted with. The trash mainly comprises of plastic debris and is not only huge but is also scattered along a wide expanse making it difficult to clear up. With a massive landfill in the middle of the ocean, many people are able to avoid any encounters, while the life at sea shares the largest risk. With concerns as to how to clean up this impossible mishap, there is not an easy answer. By simply using biodegradable items and not purchasing nearly as much as the non biodegradable ones, it will minimize the waste that is adding to this horrendous garbage patch. Recycling is one of the easiest solutions to help reduce these occurrences. However, with the majority of Americans not recycling bottled water, some efforts have been made to help reduce the effects. Laws have been made to help the public abide by new rules and regulations to keep on recycling. In the year 2009, Earth911 Facts states that almost 2,456 pounds of plastic were recycled, this was a record high. I believe we need to set our goals even higher to obtain a healthy a sustainable home we call Earth.