Imagine 700,000 square kilometers—it’s about the same size as Texas. It’s also slightly larger than the size of France, and, according to some, 800 000 square kilometers less than the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This patch is quite literally millions of pieces of garbage all clung together and floating around in the Pacific Ocean. A large percentage of this is from water bottles.
Is it worth it? Using water bottles causes a great deal of harm to the environment, one of its negative effects being contributing to the development of a plastic island in the middle of the ocean. But why do we use them?
Some will argue that bottled water is safer than tap, but that is not necessarily true. Tap water is tested more often than bottled water. In Toronto, for example, the tap water is tested for more than 300 chemicals every 6 hours. The results of water tests like these are also required to be accessible to the public. Therefore, the cleanliness of tap water is very thoroughly monitored.
The same cannot be said for the bottled water industry. It is part of the FDA and has its own set of rules when it comes to water safety. They are not required to post the results of their water tests online and are only required to test for a few certain harmful chemicals. Furthermore, the testing of the bottle is only done once every three-or-so years. This means that even if the water is clean, it is not guaranteed that the packaging for it is safe.
Others may say that they choose to use water bottles for the sake of convenience. When someone is on the go, they may think that it is easier to just grab a bottle and head out. Unfortunately, this is extremely costly for any individual. It can cost anywhere from eight cents to $2.50 for a 500 mL bottle, whereas it costs a fraction of a cent for 1 L of tap water. Even worse, most people tend to not finish their bottle, so they are not even putting the unnecessarily-costly resource to good use.
I have also heard a few people justify plastic water bottles by saying that they are reusable. This is such a risk with little to no pay off, considering that they will likely be thrown out anyway, and the reuse of them can lead to harmful chemicals leaching into the water.
Finally, some people may say that the plastic bottles are recyclable so it’s okay to use them. Despite their quality to be recycled, they still mysteriously end up in landfills. They make up one fifth of the typical landfill and are highly unlikely to decompose. It would take over 100 years to decompose, but landfills do not usually have the correct conditions for this to even happen.
In sum, it seems almost as if the pros or justifications of plastic water bottles are actually just cons in disguise. So to answer the question from before—no, plastic water bottles are not worth it. It is much safer for the environment, as well as one’s health, to buy a reusable bottle and stay away from the plastic bottles.
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