A Plastic Bottle Ban Is On
Chris Rodinis
January 9th, 2012
Well I have to admit this is my favorite story of the year so far. My favorite pet peeve is water sold in plastic bottles. I never understood this wastefulness. The water in the tap is perfectly fine, tastes great, and has fluoride in it which is healthy for teeth.
Ever notice how populations in countries that do not add fluoride to their water do not on average have as nice a smile as Americans? Yep it is because we add fluoride. In more recent times other countries seem to be catching up because I do not notice this as much as I used to.
The other amazing Freakonomic fact is that tap water cost a fraction of bottled water. Common sense has gone to the wind if you are paying thousands of times more for an inferior product!
And if you drink water from plastic don’t you feel a little bit guilty? Think of the all the petroleum wasted on the plastic and the transportation! The “water in a plastic bottle market” is one that I often snicker at and now I have a little news to rejoice over.
The latest news in plastic is that on this day an announcement has been made that the city of Concord, Massachusetts, became the first city in the US to ban sales of water in plastic bottles.
A Senior In Activism
This did not happen overnight. In 2010, citizens of the city led by Jean Hill, an 82-year old activist, began informing neighbors of the consequences of plastic bottles filling landfills and polluting oceans, rivers, streams and groundwater.
According to Hill, “ All these discarded bottles are damaging our planet, causing clumps of garbage in the oceans that hurt fish, and are creating more pollution on our streets.”
The ban took effect on New Years Day, 2013 and known as a “ban on single-serving plastic water bottles.
Did you know that in order to make all the plastic water bottles used in the US alone that it takes a staggering 17 million barrels of oil per year? This amount of oil would power over a million cars per year! (source: BanTheBottle)
Furthermore, in 2007 we consumed over 50 billion plastic bottles of single server water. What an enormous waste has been created by one single industry.
If you factor in a recycling rate of 23%, that means over 38 billion bottles go to landfills every year and will exist there in plastic form, such as they are, for between 500 to 1000 years! That sucks!
Here is one of my most favorite statistics of all time:”The recommended eight glasses of water a day, at U.S. tap rates equals about $.49 per year; that same amount of bottled water is about $1,400.”
That is 50 cents per year versus about FIFTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS! That is about $3.50 per day versus .001 cents per day on average. Talk about an upside down out of whack beyond common sense factoid….how did this happen?
Beware the Plastic Bottle Police
Luckily for bodega operators the fine for a violation is only $50 and there is an exemption for emergencies.
This is not the perfect solution, however, it does raise awareness. The same way that the 5 cent tax on disposable plastic bags reduced their distribution, the same will happen in the case of plastic water bottles in the local Concord area.
This could be the start of plastic water bottle bans everywhere. The only time you will see them is in emergency situations like ones caused by earthquakes and hurricanes.
If you are worried about the quality of your US drinking water, don’t! I have sampled the water from about 20 states and I feel just fine. My father in law sampled water from all 50 states and he is going on 92!
From my experience and from what I have read in the news, a consumer is more likely to be contaminated by water from a plastic bottle than from the tap.
For information about electronics recycling please contact:
www.EwasteWiz.com