I'm sure many of us have heard of this, plastic bottles causing cancer or something else, but I never thought that it was an actual debate. My friend sent me a link involving "the dangers of plastic bottles"...it read:
"The opposition would argue that bottled water should remain legal because it is convenient and can be recycled....Bottles of water can only be recycled a limited number of times before they cannot be recycled again. As Anne Leonard states, âUnfortunately, the plastics companiesâ claims that their plastic is ârecyclableâ are badly misleading. Plastic waste is seldom if ever recycled into the same product, so recycling used plastic does not make a dent in the amount of plastic needed to make the original productsâ (2). Many Americans assume recycling is helping clean up the environment when the true reality is that most plastic from water bottles is not even recycled back into plastic water bottles, thus making the recycling a complete waste of energy. There is no point to the convenience of plastic water bottles if convenience is what is causing the planet to die.
Because plastic water bottles are hazardous to the human body, are destroying the environment, and are misleading to consumers, sales of all plastic water bottles should be restricted in the United States. With BPA harming the body, recycling and littering harming the environment, and companies twisting the truth to get their products sold, plastic water bottles are a danger to the society of America.
I guess I am just as ignorant as many Americans, thinking that "Hey, I'm recycling my water bottle. I'm saving the environment. YAY ME !". I personally think that we as Americans should protest plastic water bottles, rather than ban them completely. I've also been told that recycling companies do not recycle bottles with caps on them, caps MUST BE OFF, which I find quite...stupid...but again like so many American's I (used to) throw away bottles with the caps on. So i'm just wondering what do you think about this? Should it or should it not be and why?
Plastic in general is "bad".. just look at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It's size is estimated at more than the size of Texas (possibly multiple times more), no one knows exactly; and it is mostly plastic; it's almost a new plastic continent. It is slowly eroded to plastic nanoparticles that intoxicate everything that lives there, accumulating along the food chain. And who is at the end of this food chain? You got it: we are.
We should not restrict the sale of plastic water bottles because we should not allow the government to restrict sales of ANY product what-so-ever.
Reasons not to ban plastic water bottles:
1. Restricting the sale of plastic bottles means we must increase the amount of aluminum that we use. This will drive the prices of almost every product on the shelf sky high.
2. If we give the government power to restrict the sales of plastic bottles, we give them the power to restrict the sales of any product out there. This allows the government to harm small businesses that can't afford to spend extra money on "environmental" means and research.
Small businesses will also suffer when the government restricts the sales of other products or variations of the product.
3. Let's assume that plastic bottles are harmful to our bodies. Nobody is forcing you to use plastic bottles. Don't force us not to use them.
Patricia Thomas
Who the hell is this?
Many people all around America have had a loss in one way or another due to plastic water bottles.
We're already starting to move to reusable grocery bags, why not water bottles? I just reuse a plastic water bottle everyday by washing it out, and filling it back up.
Hazardous to the human body, you say? Well why the hell didn't said humans take steps to make it not hazardous to them? Why should we take steps to restrict something that doesn't need to be restricted, when the only reasons are people are interacting with the material in a stupid way?
I will say this though: If we can recycle the materials in an effective, cost friendly, ends-affecting way, I'm all up for more plastic. There's a reason why it is one of the most-used materials.
It just say ban the plastic bottles, without saying with what they should be replaced. So until they have an actual proposal the plastic bottles cannot be banned. Only when they will have done research and when they will have found that the "X" material is quite healthy, not very expensive and Eco-friendly the plastic bottles could be banned.
Many things are unhealthy, but unfortunately we cannot ban them all.
Banning plastic bottles is not the answer. Not spending your money on plastic bottles is far more effective. If there is no demand there will be no supply. Crazy fact, the FDA has no rights what so ever to officially test the bottled water you are drinking as long as it is not shipped out of the state it is bottled in. And yet your city drinking water must be tested on a daily basis. Ever notice how the majority of your bottled water is bottled in the state you live? That's because the FDA has no legal authority to pass restrictions and regulations under said loophole. So you may assume that the government would never allow something that could potentially harm you, to be sold to the public. But then again the only people testing the bottled water you are drinking, are the people working for those same bottled water corporations. So of coarse there going to say it's safe. "You mean giant corporations are actually monitoring themselves?" That doesn't sound familiar.
Either way, whether it's safe to drink or not, it is still an enormous unnecessary pollutant and a terrible strain on the economy. It's not just the bottles themselves. It's the entire process of manufacturing them. It's not about banning plastic bottles. It's about informing people the causes, and allowing people to make there own decisions based off of the information they have. Just banning something is a double edged sword. Just stop buying plastic bottles. It's not hard and it'll save you money.
Well you can easily stop the sale of bottled water if you needed to, just advertise those filter things, that you put tap water in and it supposedly filters it, I got one and it does taste alot better than normal tap water, and it's free Not sure what it exactly filters but it's all good.
And about recycling plastic bottles, why not re-use them? It's not like they get 'dirty' on the inside or anything, if you put the same drink back in then it's the same. You can buy 1 water bottle and re-fill it for a year, unless you lose it
*facepalm* I'm sure those claims are in same way justly founded. However...I'm also sure that those claims are over exagerated for the dullards of the world. As it has been said, no one is forcing you to buy the bottles. Personally I prefer tap water.
Well you can easily stop the sale of bottled water if you needed to, just advertise those filter things, that you put tap water in and it supposedly filters it, I got one and it does taste alot better than normal tap water, and it's free Not sure what it exactly filters but it's all good.
The water that comes out of your own sink is likely better for you than the water that comes from bottled water. It really depends where you live, but bottled water really isn't much better for you than tap water.
Filer > Tap Water > Bottled Water
Read what sickcroon said, he pretty much got it right.
Which leads me to a question, who was it that came up with the idea of bottled water? And how in god's name did ever catch on? I mean people had clean water coming to their homes but then one day someone said "No f*ck this! I want to go and search for water the way it used to be! Water at home is too simple! Let's charge people for bottles of it!" (yes I am aware turning on the tap costs money, but I'm also aware it's most likely cheaper)
