Plastic Bottle Facts Make You Think Before You Drink

Posted on August 23, 2008 by Doug Gunzelmann in Food+Drink

Hopefully if you’re at this site and reading this you are well aware of the alternatives to using disposable bottles and recycle the ones you do. The advent of bottled water sent our already wasteful consumer culture into pollution overdrive and it’s a tremendous task to put the brakes on the momentum of this waste. Here is a list of plastic bottle fun facts that put the magnitude of this pollution into scope.

Plastic bottles take 700 years to begin composting
90% of the cost of bottled water is due to the bottle itself
80% of plastic bottles are not recycled
38 million plastic bottles go to the dump per year in America from bottled water (not including soda)
24 million gallons of oil are needed to produce a billion plastic bottles
The average American consumes 167 bottles of water a year
Bottling and shipping water is the least energy efficient method ever used to supply water
Bottled water is the second most popular beverage in the United States

Although it can be easy and convenient to pick up bottle beverage products the end cost to the environment is staggering. So be mindful when you drink…and remember, friends don’t let friends drink from disposables!

bottled water, plastic, plastic bottles, recycle

33 Responses to “ Plastic Bottle Facts Make You Think Before You Drink ”

Ben

24. Aug, 2008

Doug, change the spelling of “breaks” to “brakes” - the first is lunch, the second save your life.

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Mrs Green

24. Aug, 2008

Hiya
Great article and awesome photo!
We’re currently running a ‘pledge and win’ competition over on our site. One of the prizes is a reusable bottle and set of stickers from the fabulous We Want Tap site. The comp is open to worldwide entrants, so if you think you can reduce your waste in some way (one of the pledges is to start using a reusable bottle) then why not head over and try your chances?

All you have to do is pledge, carry out the action and comment back on our site - you have until 7th September to do this!

Click on our homepage and look for ‘pledge and win’ across the top menus

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Doug

24. Aug, 2008

Thanks Ben.

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Scandalous Candice

24. Aug, 2008

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/05/teen-decomposes.html

This will help.

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Melv

24. Aug, 2008

human is waste generator. think before you drink!

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Paul Smith

24. Aug, 2008

Damn! Thanks for the perspective. Meanwhile, a great way to divert more of these from the waste stream is getting products made from recycled water bottles. I recently got a messenger bag from Act2GreenSmart, and nevermind that it’s made from rPET, it’s a damn fine bag! Check them out at http://www.act2greensmart.com

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Ivan Storck

24. Aug, 2008

Great facts about the environmental impact. If you know, I’d love to hear more about the health effects - especially of re-use of plastic bottles, and how quickly they get dirty. Sometimes having the health and environmental impacts together makes a really compelling case.

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Ed

26. Aug, 2008

Very interesting

What irony to see a plastic FIJI water advertisement placed to the right by Google! Sad.

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melisha

01. Sep, 2008

That is sickening

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Jina

03. Sep, 2008

What are the alternatives? Lets say, for a high school that uses an outrageous amount of plastic bottles, how can this be resolved?

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- mariposa
  
  12. Aug, 2009
  
  of course this is an important question, that schools and other institutions are grappling with.
  
  but i hope everyone can take a step back and see it within the greater perspective as a silly question all the same. we haven’t had this epidemic for very long, the past 15-20 years– and we got along fine for thousands of years!
  
  humans– quick to adapt, quick to forget. let’s get back to adapting!
  
  Reply to this comment
aliveta roko

28. Sep, 2008

hey great pics and i like them.Anyway i also think that plastic bottling sucks and should be ban at once.

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Don E.

03. Dec, 2008

Consider also the impact of shipping the water via truck. Not just water, but all soda, coke, pepsi, etc. Water is an incredibly heavy load, 62 lb/cu ft, and a truck full of it consumes fuel and tires, and increases deterioration of roads and space. In an urban setting, a trailer truck commands a large amount of space both while driving and when parked and loading/unloading. Not to mention the effect a giant diesel truck painted with obnoxious slogans has on quality of place.

Then, consider the soft drinks that add more tons of sugar to power our kids and divert corn crops from use for food. (check out how many things contain high fructose corn syrup. Rather, try to find something that doesn’t contain it).

All in all, there are so many things wrong with this it makes my head spin.

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scooby

24. Mar, 2009

Buy glass and recycle it morons.

who invented this idea - they should get an ass kicking

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- amazinraisin
  
  29. Mar, 2009
  
  Plastic bottles are an example of an opportunity to apply “cradle to cradle” thinking to design. By definition, a plastic bottle is only useful as long as it contains a drink. It’s usefulness is obsolete as soon as the drink is consumed. Every drink manufacturer knows this, so you’d think they’d incorporate this knowledge into the initial design of the bottle. Here’s a like to some people who’ve invented bottles that can be used as building blocks as soon as they have been emptied of drink: http://www.popsci.com/node/21013
  
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Max

07. Apr, 2009

Plastic bottles are a problem…not just water bottles…all plastic bottles. Enso Bottles is an environmental company, we saw that plastic bottles were a problem and developed a biodegradable plastic bottle that biodegrades in a landfill environment. Plastic that is recycled will someday come to end of its useful life and will have to be burned or dumped into a landfill where it will languish forever.

Corn based plastics (PLA) can help but they can only be composted in a commercial composting site. PLA that ends up in a landfill doesn’t biodegrade…it will languish along with other plastics for generations.

Enso’s biodegradable plastic can be recycled and when it ends up in a landfill it will biodegrade into biogases and humus.

Enso isn’t the end all answer but it is a step in the right direction.

Max
Ensobottles.com

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Hank Dressel

12. Apr, 2009

THERE IS A COMMERCIAL RUNNING FOR A THERMOS TYPE BOTTE AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO REUSING PLASTIC BOTTLES. THEY CLAIM THAT PLASTIC BOTTLES HAVE DANGEROUS TOXIN IN THEM THAT CAUSE CANCER. IS THIS TRUE???

THANKS, HANK

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justin

13. Apr, 2009

I read the article and im doing a school project on this!!!!!

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Shari

13. Apr, 2009

This is almost scary- not just the numbers and figures, but the realization that most of the world wouldn’t be surprised by this, and STILL don’t care enough to take the simple step of buying a reusable bottle. They’re even pretty cool- pretty colors, etc. You’d think the one thing powerful enough to overcome people’s laziness would be a fashion trend, but apparently even that isn’t strong enough.
What we CAN do is put as much of the existing resources as we can into changing things. This site provides some info on groups working on the issue: http://www.greatnonprofits.org/green

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Travis

28. Apr, 2009

Go to: Element304.com

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Plastic Bottles

15. May, 2009

Very informative article. Maybe companies should stop bottling liquids in plastics and use plastic bottles for things that will last. Maybe bottle essential oils in plastic, or make plastics bottles easier to recycle and reuse. What do you suggest are some of the best ways to reuse plastic bottles?

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TV commercial production

01. Jun, 2009

I think the reason why so many bottles dont get recycled is because there are no places to dispose of them, except maybe back at home. I suppose if there were public recycling bins then it might help improve the situation.

Crazy how 90% of the cost is on the bottles…
-Jack

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wholesale glass bottles

04. Jun, 2009

whoa thats awesome!

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Steven Mandzik

12. Jul, 2009

Ivan - here is a report from Harvard School of Public Health found Plastic bottles leach chemical BPA into water under normal cond. BPA is linked to diabetes, heart, & reproductive issues - http://tr.im/riZC

Doug - I love this facts on plastic bottles. Do u have source for them? Would love to see it - steve@acleanlife.org

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