You’re on the leave and need something well and easy to drink. So you stop by a convenience save or a soda vending machine and grab a bottle of water. As you sip it, you look comfortable you’re doing something good for yourself…But are you doing something bad for the planet? According to Container Recycling Institute, within the U.S. alone, every day we sip higher than 70 million bottles of water. Each day, one in six bottles end up neither in landfills or incinerators. Congress quotes statistics that speak 30,000,000 bottles a year leave to landfills. And that’s just within the United States. But howcome are glass h2o bottles ending up in landfills? Aren’t they recyclable? Unfortunately, manufacturers (like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo) who’ve created pledges to use recycled bottles to make new ones are possessing trouble keeping their promise. Too little h2o bottles are sent to recycling facilities. According to Container Recycling Institute, only 4% of glass bottles are used to make new bottles. So howcome don’t more states release redemption cash for glass bottles? The truth is, it may not make any difference. In California, every day about 4 million empty h2o bottles end up within the trash, despite the fact they can be worth $26 million in unclaimed California Refund Value (CRV) deposits, according to State of California Department of Conservation. Some experts even question if recycling glass bottles is worthwhile, since they shall take more life to make than those created from virgin materials.
It’s difficult to know, even, how long it really takes for glass h2o bottles to degrade. Some sources claim is takes a million years. Others, 450 to 1,000 years. And still others, 50 years. In reality, how long it takes for a h2o bottle to biodegrade probably depends upon the environment it sits in. A bottle exposed to sunlight shall degrade many more quickly than one that’s buried within the soil. Yet even when glass h2o bottles degrade, they shall still pose a risk to environment. According to USA Today, Carol Misseldine, sustainability coordinator for Mill Valley, California, claims 25% of glass bottles are within the ocean. They shall biodegrade there, but Misseldine says they break below into tiny pieces that fish eat, but which are indigestible. “Sometimes they suffocate or starve due to the fact that the glass creates them look so full that they do not have anything. But that glass moves up the food chain and we have fish, so the toxins eventually leave into us,” Misseldine alleges. There exists other worries about glass h2o bottles, too. Pacific Studies Institute (PRI) says it takes 17 million barrels to make the h2o bottles Americans use – and that doesn’t with the oil needed to transport those bottles. This no. of oil should fuel over a million cars for one year. Some claim glass bottles pose well-being risks, too. When heated, glass bottles shall leach chemicals linked to cancer. According to Keith Christman, director of wrapping at the American Chemistry Council, “the similar to goes for exposing an open h2o bottle to room heat for too long. You should treat it as an opened food product container…bacteria can grow in warm conditions.” So what’s an single to do? Since most people who sip bottled h2o consume it on the leave or due to the fact that their tap h2o is unappetizing, switching to tap h2o isn’t the entire solution. Too, the Environmental Working Team claims tap h2o in 42 states contains 141 unregulated contaminants that have no safety standards. That’s howcome “water in a box” is generating very many of interest. The manufacturers of this product, called IceBox water, claim that for every 5,000 5 liter containers of IceBox h2o consumed, 25,000 glass h2o bottles are being replaced, 1,396 pounds of glass are removed from the manufacturing process, and 474 gallons of oil are not used. The wrapping is 100% recyclable cardboard. The crate is even printed with vegetable dyes. In addition, each crate has a patented spout created from Polyethylene – the similar to fabric located in IV bags. According to manufacturer ( ), these spouts use “a fraction” regarding the oil used for glass h2o bottles. Too, due to the fact that of this spout, they claim the h2o stays new indefinitely. The spout’s one-way valve doesn’t let contamination to enter the box, even subsequent to it’s been opened. So whether you decide to sip tap h2o or IceBox’s “water in a box,” you’ll be doing you – and future generations – something very good.
No comments:
Post a Comment