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Plastic Bottles
by Melinda Caldwell Plastic water bottles are everywhere. We drive to the store to buy them, drink out of them, and the majority of us, without much thought, throw them in the trash after we’ve used them once. So what. It’s just plastic. Right? Plastics are made from a resin, a resin that is made up of oil or natural gas. (Bet you didn’t realize your gas tank was competing for oil with your water bottle.) Plastic makers buy resin from chemical companies. They re-melt the resin, add more chemicals, and mold it into a plastic container. There are many different kinds of plastic. Water and soda bottles are made of PET (# 1) plastic. The PET plastic water bottles Americans use and throw away in one year use up more than 47 million gallons of oil to produce. Americans throw away 200 billion containers, including plastic bottles and aluminum cans each year There is a small percentage of bottle waste that finds its way to recycling centers. These bottles are baled into bales that weigh about 800 lbs. When enough are accumulated, they are sold to a processing facility that wash and process them into tiny flakes. If you enjoy carpet on your floors, you can thank a recycler. Carpet manufacturers are the biggest buyer of recycled PET flakes in the USA. Polar fleece clothing, automotive parts on your car, even the dog beds sold at Wal-Mart are made with recycled PET. It’s cool to drink bottled water though, isn’t it? It’s better for you, right? The majority of bottled water doesn’t come from some magical spring, but from a municipal water supply. Read the label. As important as clean water is, with proper filtration, the water from your tap is just as good as water you can buy in a bottle. The city has water analysis available so you can know the content of your water. A good home filtration system doesn’t cost that much and allows you to re-fill your own containers. A hassle? Keep in mind the bottle, the plant that makes it, the plant that makes it’s contents, the trucks that shuttle it between manufacturing companies, distribution centers, and your local store all have at least one thing in common…the consumption of fuel. After you drink that municipal water in a plastic bottle you drove your car to buy. After you throw it into your trashcan. Ask yourself. What are you really throwing away? Submitted by the Environmental Writers Project of the Northwest Arkansas Economic Development District. For more information, call 870.741.6536 or online at www.nwaedd.org/waste |
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