Bottled Water Crisis | Teen Ink

Bottled Water Crisis

February 24, 2017
By lola_tiff BRONZE, Olympia, Washington
lola_tiff BRONZE, Olympia, Washington
1 article 4 photos 2 comments

As Bob ross once said, “bottled water cost 2,000 times more than tap water. Can you imagine paying 2,000 times the price of anything else? How about a $10,000 sandwich?” Unfortunately, not everyone understands this. There are several reasons that bottled water should be banned.

The first reason is that bottled water is not a good value. Usually, bottled water is the same price as soda. It is hard to find bottled water for less than one dollar. Also, even at gases modern day high price, bottled water is more than gas. Especially if bottled water was always sold by the gallon, it would be so much more than gas. As Mother Nature Network demonstrates,       “Assuming you can find a one dollar vending machine, that works out to be five cents an ounce… gasoline is sold at just three cents an ounce.”(5-8) This demonstrates that bottled water is almost two times the price of gas, which many people complain about.

The next reason that bottled water should be banned is because it is no healthier than tap. Tap water is safe and healthy. While bottled water is put in a bottle and sold, tap water is regularly checked for chemicals.  Mother Nature Network perfectly explains that “water systems in the developed world and well-regulated.”(10) This explains that tap water is safe, since it is watched all the time. But, if bottled water is actually just tap water and the water pipes are dirty, then all arguments for bottled water are lost. If bottled water goes through the same pipes as tap, it will also be dirty.

On the other hand, some people say that recycled PET can be used for fiber. This point of view makes sense because fiber can be used to make clothing, carpet, and even other bottles. However, bottles thrown in the garbage cause pollution and never biodegrade. This is especially bad because 80% of water bottles don’t get thrown away. Also, the production causes pollution. Not only plastic is used or wasted to make bottled water. Oil is also required for the production. According to Mother Nature Network, “Bottled water produces up to 1.5 million tons of plastic waste per year. According to food and water watch, that plastic requires 4.7 million gallons of oil per year to produce.”(12)

Bottled water is a very important topic to understand in order to care about the environment. Lamentably, people around the world do not understand this issue. Not only do people not understand this, but they don’t know that it is an issue. Bottled water should be banned.



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