Did you know, 49 billion plastic water bottles were sold in the U.S. in 2015 with a recycling rate of only 31.1%? That would mean more than 34 billion plastic water bottles were littered, incinerated, or put into landfills — left to decompose for centuries to come and release toxic chemicals into the environment (Beachapedia, 2022). Landfills aren't going away, and as much as we'd like to turn a blind eye to that problem, recycling remains crucial. Countless people worldwide put a trash can outside their houses on a specific day of the week just to have it magically disappear without much thought. But where does it go after that? It's taken to the dump, yes, but how about after that? The reason I bring up landfills is that a lot of recyclables (including plastic water bottles) are discarded in trash cans.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS TO RECYCLING?
There are many benefits to recycling. Firstly, recycling can empower someone and make them feel like they're making a difference. I get how people may have thoughts such as, "well I'm just one person, so it doesn't matter if I recycle this properly," but if everybody thought that way we'd be in pretty big trouble. Another benefit to recycling is it helps the environment. This is why I created The Green Bottle Movement to spread awareness of the plastic water bottle crisis in which a lot of us are mindlessly living. Recycling can also conserve natural resources.
DID YOU KNOW?
Not only are plastic water bottles an environmental crisis, but we are using a large number of natural resources to make them. Part of the process uses polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is a petroleum product that requires an excessive amount of fossil fuel to make. Then, making the plastic water bottle itself requires three times the needed water to fill the bottle in the first place. This water is then unusable after being exposed to chemicals during the production process (Thompson, 2017). Wasteful, right? Just imagine an empty plastic water bottle filled with oil a quarter full because that’s how much fossil fuel was required to produce it (The environmental impacts of plastic water bottles, 2017).
