5 Reasons You Should Stop Buying Bottled Water
Plastic bottles harm your health status and ecosystem in ways you never imagine.
The ever-increasing trend of drinking bottled water generates tons of single-use plastic waste. This is because people used to say that bottled water is safer than tap water — -and many of us consider it a healthy alternative to soft drinks.
Actually, this is not a fact.
Realize that you can live more environment friendly by opting out plastic waste from your routine life that ultimately ends up making landfill.
Here are some reasons you should never buy bottled water but rather go for healthy swaps.
Reasons You Should Stop Buying Bottled Water
1. Plastic Bottles Cause Plastic Pollution
Today’s humans believe in convenience rather than quality of life and bottled water is one of such conveniences that we enjoy every day before going to the office, after an extreme workout, and while traveling.
But did you ever suppose that what happens to these empty plastic bottles you dump everywhere?
These plastic bottles add up single-use plastic waste that lasts for years and directly pollutes the ecosystem.
Study reveals that people throw 2.5 million plastic bottles per hour in the US — about 35 billion in a year.
Meanwhile, many of us do this believing that plastic bottles undergo recycling completely, and so — nothing to worry. However, this is not a reality.
World is producing more than 400 million tons of plastic waste every year from which a little is subjected to recycling. The reason is the slowest degradation rate of plastic — about 450 years.
According to the current statistics, 9% of plastic waste is recycled, 22% is mismanaged, 49% occupied land, and 19% is incinerated, globally.
The incinerated plastic raises the level of pollutants in the air and ends up polluting the entire biosphere — making life difficult to survive.
The dumped plastic waste emits greenhouse gases causing extreme climate warming.
Over time, ultraviolet sun rays break up the plastic waste into tiny pieces that we called microplastics.
Microplastic is hardly visible and has been spread all around. When ingested by us, it starts accumulating and affect our health status.
Not only this, marine life also gets affected by mismanaged plastic waste. It’s said that approximately 33 billion pounds of plastic enter to the marine environment every year.
Over one million marine animals die each year due to the giant plastic debris in the oceans that staggeringly piling up. While others do contain a considerable quantity of microplastics that when we consume, become diseased.
So, there’s a need to stop this disaster of lives by reducing plastic waste and getting started from using reusable water bottles.
2. Plastic Manufacturing Reduces Natural Resources
Plastic manufacturing uses non-renewable natural resources to meet the demand for bottled water, either mineral water, spring water, or purified water. These resources include groundwater, energy, and fossil fuels.
Non-renewable resources are those which cannot be replaced if once depleted. Fossil fuels including crude oil, coal, and natural gas all are non-renewable resources.
According to the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA), it took 1.39 liter of water and 0.21 megajoule of energy to make one liter of finished bottled water.
Apparently, it comes off as a little quantity of water and energy per liter, however, it multiplies over and over when the target is to produce millions of water bottles.
In the current era, over 90% of plastic bottles are made from chemicals sourced from fossil fuels including crude oil and natural gas.
Not only this, natural resources are depleted in the bottled water production, packaging, storage, and transportation process to the market.
It all took a huge proportion of fossil fuels and energy that could otherwise be harnessed to drive vehicles worldwide.
3. Bottled Water Pose Health Threats
Plastic bottles make use of chemicals such as phthalates, Bisphenol A, and polystyrene — the major health disruptors.
Phthalates are the collection of chemicals used to soften the plastic enough for molding it into a bottled shape. When ingested or inhaled, phthalates cause hormonal issues while suppressing growth and development.
Bisphenol A is another deadly chemical used in plastic bottle manufacturing to make the plastic clear. Over time, it begins to leach into water and cause hormonal disruption and make people susceptible to various types of cancer.
Polystyrene or Styrofoam also makes a major contribution in making plastic bottles and leach out into the water in the form of carcinogens and neurotoxins.
More than 90% of the US population contains traces of these chemicals and the habit of drinking bottled water every day is a major cause of spreading hazardous chemicals among people.
Moreover, recycled water bottles contain polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which has raised various health concerns in the ecosystem.
The chances of leaching these toxic chemicals into water increase on heating, microwaving, and storing water bottles for long time.
So, from now on, stop taking risk on your health and avoid buying bottled water to enjoy a quality living.
4. Buying Bottled Water Is A Waste Of Money
Think of the money you spend each month buying bottled water. This single habit of buying bottled water can kick your budget out even when you can survive and thrive more healthily using any alternative.
In actual, you are not paying money for filtered water — You’re paying for plastic, single-use plastic that will barely be recycled and ultimately ended up landfilling.
Does it make any sense to you?
Americans pay more than $100 to buy bottled water each year per person. On average, bottled water costs 300 times more expensive than tap water — really incredible.
The bottled water industry has grown exponentially and that’s because people take it as a status symbol and get their hands on bundles of bottled water just like other staple grocery items.
We need to change this belief. Our priority should be the quality of life rather than promoting the mischievous concept in society.
5. You’re Not Sure About Water Quality
Bottled water brands have made their name in the market in such a way that we buy bottles of water over and over again without being sure about the quality.
From where these companies are taking water to fill tons of bottles, how they filter the water — did they even do the filtration or not, from which manufacturing processes bottled water actually undergoes, are some questions we had to ask ourselves before drinking bottled water next time.
And if you had thought about them ever, did you find the answer to these?
Chances are that the bottled water companies sell you tap water. Not all water plants do that yet most of them fill the tap water in plastic bottles even without treating it further or filtering it.
The present time is the era of uncertainty — we are not sure about the quality and safety concerns of what we are eating and drinking.
So, rather than purchasing packaged and stored items, we need to switch our lifestyle towards a healthier and safer side using simple alternatives.
Healthier Alternatives To Bottled Water
Switching to tap water is easier than you think. It will keep you on a budget and save your planet, ocean, and atmosphere while minimizing health risks.
Accept that, we cannot cut off plastic entirely from our routine lives rather can avoid single-use plastic to keep ourselves away from deadly chemicals and their pollution.
In the first place, say no to bottled water and make a habit of carrying your own reusable water bottle containing fresh filtered water you trust.
And to ensure the quality of water, install a faucet filter to your sink tap and enjoy contaminant-free water.
Other reasonable and healthier alternatives to bottled water include a bottleless water dispenser or a whole-house filtration system.
All these options are environment friendly, cost-effective, and durable you can try once to boost your living standard.
