Institutional AffiliationPlastic Water Bottle Pollution

Plastic bottles are terrible and severe threat to the environment. The Guardian report shows that 8.3 billion tons of plastic bottles have been manufactured since 1950s worldwide. Approximately, in a minute, people buy one million plastic water bottles with Americans purchasing bout 29 billion bottles in a year (Leonard, 2010). However, only one in every six plastic bottles undergoes recycling with the rest being exposed in the environment. The fact that plastic water bottles photo-degrade rather than biodegrading taking at many years for one to decompose means there is a big problem. These plastic water bottles leak pollutants into water and soil causing a severe environmental threat and waste of valuable resources hence pollution. The question is, how can we stop polluting the earth with plastic bottles?

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However, the plastic bottle manufacturers who are the producers believe that much can be achieved through effective plastic waste management. This group states collective support for waste collection can establish value chains which can create jobs and wealth. Manufactures feel that the combined efforts with the firms that do the recycling will safe as only about 5 percent of the total bottles produced in a year undergo recycling (Leonard, 2010). They are concerned with this issue since they make a massive profit out of selling plastic bottled water. On the part of consumers, they still do not feel bad about buying plastic bottled water. Despite the call to reduce plastic bottles pollution, consumers believe less has been done to help them have an alternative to purchasing plastic bottled water. Consumers view that for convenience purpose, there is need to have water accessed at major transport areas such as airports (Viscusi, Huber, Bell, & Cecot, 2013). The environment is the most affected by the plastic bottle pollution following the increased use of plastic water bottles. The environmental authority has had several attempts to ban on the use plastic like in Kenya, China, France, and Italy among others. There have also been numerous calls from the authorities to encourage recycling by reusing of the plastic bottles and adopt effective disposal ways.

Soil and water have been the most affected with the plastic water bottles which finally find their ways into the landfill and in the rivers before being carried to the oceans. Concerns in the recent have risen on how the oceans are much becoming the primary targets for plastic bottle pollution due to their vulnerability to the issue. For instance, coral atoll in South Pacific which has not be habituated was found to have been filled with 18 tons of the plastic bottles despite the island being remotely located (Eriksen, Lebreton, Carson, Thiel, Moore, Borerro, & Reisser, 2014). Similar results have been observed in Arctic beaches despite their remoteness. The same concern has been raised on the contamination of groundwater, and the safety of the tap water people access in urban areas. Thus, soil and water bodies are the most areas where plastic bottle pollution occur and has been a challenge for human and other organic habitation. Caring will lower the amount of plastic getting into landfills and water bodies besides saving natural habitats and hundreds of dollars.

The issue of plastic bottle pollution has been in existence as early as the 1940s when first the massive usage of material was popularized. Since then there has been a colossal estimation of a large amount of the tons of plastic materials that have been produced as shown in the bar graph below. Most of the plastics that were produced by 1950s still exist either in the soil or in water as the petrochemical compound used to make them take over 1000 years before they can decompose. Ironically, human beings are the number one agent of plastic bottle pollution and the first group to take up the cautionary responsibility to clean the environment off the plastics. So the move makes them get in touch with the environment with the intention of safeguarding the natural resources such as water bodies and the soil where animals and humans themselves live.

Plastic water bottle pollution is viewed from different perspectives socially, politically, economically, and environmentally. Socially, people indicate the inconvenience of carrying along with reusable bottles of water and rather prefer buying plastic bottled water already packaged. Therefore, there is great need to create awareness among people especially those operating away from homes to use reusable water bottles. Reaching the users of plastic bottled water especially in urban centers to create them awareness about the environmental dangers of excessive use of plastic water bottles will bring a better lasting solution. Politically, the fight against the excessive use of plastic bottles has been believed to be a responsibility of the government. Today, various states have laws in place guiding the manufacturing, the usage, and disposal of plastic bottles. Economically, managing plastic bottle pollution is expensive and much effort should focus on companies having an alternative solution to offer recycling services. This in a way will help create employment for the people involved in collection of these plastic bottles.

Thus, we can say that all multiple efforts have been put in place right from the manufacturers, consumers, and the environmentalists to ensure the issue of plastic bottles pollution is addressed. The combine efforts and awareness on recycling of these materials and their best disposal should be given the priority. There is need for everyone to get involved in finding a solution to plastic bottles pollution.

References

Eriksen, M., Lebreton, L. C., Carson, H. S., Thiel, M., Moore, C. J., Borerro, J. C., ... & Reisser, J. (2014). Plastic pollution in the world's oceans: more than 5 trillion plastic pieces weighing over 250,000 tons afloat at sea. PloS one, 9(12), e111913.

Leonard, A. (2010). The story of bottled water. The story of stuff project.

Viscusi, W. K., Huber, J., Bell, J., & Cecot, C. (2013). Discontinuous behavioral responses to recycling laws and plastic water bottle deposits. American law and economics review, 15(1), 110-155.