Water is a unique substance without which no life form can exist on this earth. Human beings use water mainly for drinking and cooking. No common man can sustain his health and life without consuming adequate quantity of daily water. Dehydration can kill people more easily and quickly than hunger.
There are many areas over the globe where drinkable water is unavailable. In such places, people depend mainly on the bottled water, which is otherwise known as mineral water, for the drinking purposes. The companies that market these bottles of water claim that the water provided by them is the purest, even if it is not. Most times, the bottled water is less safe and healthy due to the presence of many harmful micro organisms. People prefer to buy bottled mineral water, while they travel or backpack. Altogether it can be found that the consumption of bottled water is increasing day by day. But, these bottles of water are negatively affecting our environment in many ways. The knowledge of these negative effects of the bottled water should encourage the public to reduce its usage.
Bottled water comes in bottles made of completely recyclable petroleum product polyethylene terephthalate (PET). They are not biodegradable but are photodegradable. Resultantly, they get degraded over time releasing toxins into the environment. Million barrels of oil are used for making plastic bottles, which produces million tons of carbon dioxide, which in turn adds to global warming. A large quantity of fossil fuels is used for the transportation of the bottled water. The transportation adds to the emission of green house gases, accelerating the climate change process.
The companies that market bottled water drain the natural water sources like springs and aquifers. As a result the wells and rivers get dried up and the wetlands get depleted. To produce one bottle of water, thrice the quantity of water is used. All these aggravate the shortage of water.
Billion pounds of PET plastic bottles are dumped in the soil and water bodies causing a threat to all living beings in the ecosystem. The existence of many living species has been threatened by the plastic bottles. The dead bodies of many animals, birds and fishes have revealed the presence of huge quantity of plastic materials in their gut. Also, their growth gets impaired by the plastics present in the water. Human beings ultimately consume these sickened animals and get affected by the toxins present in them.
The photodegradable plastic trash absorbs organic pollutants like Bisphenol A and polychlorinated biphenyls, which take a long period to decompose. The majority of the bottles that are thrown directly to the sea or those which reach there through other ways settle on the ocean floor where they remain undegraded. On the other hand, if these bottles are incinerated, they would release still more toxic substances into the atmosphere. Recycling can be done only for PET and other bottles just add to the litter. Much of the arable land becomes a dump yard for the water bottles, destroying the soil and the life forms in it.
If the environmental cost of bottled water consumption is taken into consideration, it will have to be banned world over, forever. Complete avoidance of bottled drinks, reusing and recycling of existing bottles are some effective remedies to reduce the harmful effects caused by bottled water.
Reference
Schriever , Norm. “Plastic Water Bottles Causing Flood of Harm to Our Environment”. www.huffingtonpost.com. 28 Sep. 2013. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/norm-schriever/post_5218_b_3613577.html 20 Nov.2014.
