It has long been accepted that
bottling water is wasteful: both environmentally and economically. This year’s worldly
bottled water consumption prediction of 233 billion liters bumps it to the most
popular liquid to consume- a title that is concerning due to recent trends in
foreign water brands that capitalize on a geographic location to market a
product. This article focuses on the British perspective, but the same is true
in most developed countries- we have the resources to provide enough water for
ourselves, yet a large percentage of the water we consume is foreign (around a
fifth of British water is imported according to the Guardian). The increased gas emissions from transporting
this water to locations across the globe seems absurd when the country has the
capacity to fill needs. More than just transportation costs, the plastic in the
bottle that surrounds the precious water has many environmental impacts. Even
though there have been recent packaging breakthroughs that allow less material
to be used, the best option should be to use local water and bottled water from
your own country.
Possibly the best option to
decrease American spending on foreign water is to institute a high tax to make
prices substantially higher, which would decrease spending on such water.
Issues with this would be the possible retaliation by other countries taxing
our goods at higher rates, which could have many negative repercussions.
I believe bottled water has become
such a staple in our society in America any attempt to change this would
probably have little impact. Instead of trying to get Americans to give this
up, I believe we should focus on trying to produce bottles using one hundred
percent-recycled materials and bottles that consume minimal materials.
The War Over Water
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your statement about the wastefulness of bottled water. Many of these bottles end up in landfills, due to the decision of people to not recycle them. However, your solution to cut back on foreign water is not very easy. Every day, water is becoming scarcer and many people believe the next war will be fought over clean water. This article reminded me of an incident that happened years ago, when South Carolina sued North Carolina over water. North Carolina came up with a plan to funnel 10 million gallons of water a day from the Catawba River. However, this River runs through South Carolina and amounts to half of SC Low country region's freshwater supply. This court case shows that water appears to become less available than we thought and that getting foreign water may be inevitable. Although, I totally agree that we should try to produce bottles with recycled materials and reduce waste.
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/environment/Sept-Octo/North-and-South-Carolina-at-Legal-Odds-over-Water.html
I also agree with Darien and Bonnie that bottling water is wasteful. The fact that this years prediction of liters of water bottles used is 233 Billion liters is crazy. But i am in between Darien and Bonnie on the statement that we should cut back on foreign water. We do have a fair amount of water in the United States to supply our water needs. But it also is a good idea to still keep our relations with foreign countries with water so we can always have the resource if we need it. I agree with Bonnie's statement that "bottled water has become a staple", because it has become the "norm" to get our water needs from a water bottle. Water bottles are easy to grab on the way out and I like Bonnie's idea of trying to make water bottles out of 100% recycled material. There is no possible way to stop Americans from using water bottles, so that is a great idea.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to completely cut off all foreign water, and the fact that so many businesses are using foreign water as an easy way to make extra profit does not help with ending our ties with them; although, I do believe that not only should water be provided locally more for the reason of it wasting less fuel and plastic and everything fore-mentioned, but also because it minimizes the amount of local, fresh water that the foreign population would be receiving.
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ReplyDeleteI agree that we should not cut ties with foreign water completely. Modern-day practices, such as fossil fuel burning and fracking put the U.S’s clean water sources at risk for contamination. To cut back on the amount of plastic ending up in landfills, I think we should focus more on tap water. Water quality in the Clover/ Lake Wylie area is not the best, but thankfully, there are ways to clean and kill the bacteria that harbors in our water. Making or buying water filtration systems and boiling water are two common methods used to clean and purify water. Over the past year, I have started using a CamelBak water bottle. This has cut back on my bottled water usage tremendously. CamelBak bottles are durable, refillable, convenient, and BPA free.
ReplyDeleteIf everyone recycles their water bottles there really wouldn’t be a problem. There would be a huge problem if we got rid of water bottles. For the past 2 summers I have gone to a camp Salkehatchie where you repair houses for people who can’t afford to repair it. When we go to work on the house we bring water bottles. We bring water bottles because not all people are fortunate enough to have running water in their homes and if they do we don’t want to impose upon their food and drinks. Last summer I repaired a house with no running water. My cite leader and the owner worked together to run water to his house but it was the later part of the week before the house got water. For some people water bottles are all they drink. The sad truth is that not all people have running water in their houses.(Even in the US) If you take away water bottles some people won’t have any water at all.
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