It’s Christmas day and you receive a gift from a good friend. It’s wrapped in beautiful gold wrapping paper, with a red bow on top. It has a tag with your name on it and says thank you for being such a great friend. You are excited and anxious, and you rip it open. It’s a reusable bottle with your name etched into it. You are happy because it’s your favorite color and has your name on it. You can fill it with water and carry it around with you. You would be saving money by not having to buy bottled water from the store or vending machine. You would be saving the environment from pollution by using your reusable bottle. Bottled water is classified as a food, and is a necessity for the body to survive, but is also regulated by a federal agency. Even though it would remove a healthy beverage choice for consumers, bottled water should be banned because it would reduce waste, saves consumers and manufacturing companies money, and protects local water supply sources.
Reduces Waste and Protects the Environment
Banning bottled water would reduce how much waste is littered all over the country as well as worldwide. Plastic waste is a very big issue all over the world. Just in the United States alone consumers purchase over 50 billion plastic bottles in a year. And out of those 50 billion plastic bottles that are purchased every year, only 40% of those are actually recycled. That leaves a substantial amount of leftover plastic bottle waste just thrown away in the trash to fill our landfills, or litter our beaches and parks. There are many alternatives to purchasing bottled water. People can stop buying cases and individual plastic water bottles. Instead, purchase a reusable bottle that is available at an outdoor store or a retail store. There are other alternatives to bottled water such as using public water fountains, buying a home water filtering system for use at home, or a container with a built-in replaceable filter to filter water and refill reusable bottles.
Saves Consumers and Manufacturing Companies Money
Consumers are spending outrageous amounts of money per year on bottled water. The cost of a gallon of water averages to be around $1.22 which makes the amount spent on bottle water 300 times that of tap water. Using reusable containers or bottles would significantly decrease the amount that consumers spend on purchasing bottled water. Also, the amount of oil, fossil fuels, and the transportation costs that go into manufacturing and ensuring plastic bottled water is available would decrease.
A lot of factors go into manufacturing bottled water. In the long run it costs more to get plastic water filled bottles to consumers than it is for consumers to have in home water filters to use to refill their reusable bottles. A lot of energy and oil is required to manufacture plastic bottles. Also, what else that has to be taken into consideration when making plastic bottles for water, is the factories with all the machinery that is required. There are multiple operational costs to upkeep the factories and machinery. Labeling and marketing as well are additional costs that go into getting bottled water sold and used in the Country. The only way to save on these costs is to not produce bottled water any longer. The convenience of bottled water isn’t worth the costs in the long run.
Protects and Preserves Local Water Supply Sources
Water that is to be bottled has to come from somewhere, and go through a process to be filtered before it becomes available for consumers. The water that is used by manufacturers for bottled water consumption comes from local water supply sources such as lakes, rivers, ponds, natural water sources, and good ole tap water that is treated. Yes, some manufacturing companies use tap water and treat it. Tap water or public drinking water is regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Four major brand name companies that bottle water are getting their water from tap water that is treated. Also, a lot of companies are using sources from drought ridden states. Once again, the only way to help preserve the water supply sources is to use at home filters, reusable bottles, and public water fountains.
Conclusion
There will be people that argue the bottle water ban issue saying that banning bottled water will take away a healthy beverage choice for consumers. Putting a ban on bottled water would extremely help the world with plastic waste and encourage recycling. Manufacturing companies and consumers would be saving money in the long run if they were to use other bottle water options such as using reusable water bottles, public water fountains, and at home water filtering systems. We do not know if there will come a time when we will be close to running out of water, so why do we continue to take from drought ridden sources?
Ensuring that bottle water is safe and comes from a reputable source is extremely important and something the consumer doesn’t take into account. Using reusable sources will help in ensuring our natural water sources are saved and replenished. Consumers should take the environment into account when thinking about the bottle water ban. Reducing waste, protecting and preserving our natural water sources, and reducing a financial burden for manufacturing and producing plastic water bottles are the main contributing factors to the water bottle ban. These are factors that everyone should think about and take into consideration.
