Preview

The Flaws of Bottled Water

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1536 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Flaws of Bottled Water
Liquid Asset
Bottled water companies are industries that cause detremental damage to the environment and its customers. But according to law and American economics, they are doing nothing wrong. They are an ever-expanding industry generating record profits. In America and the rest of the world, economic growth is the epitome of great modernized success. Yes, the companies are over using a lot of fossil fuels such as crude oil and natural gas. Yes, they are ruining ecosystems by draining water tables until they are arid, dry and unable to support growth. Yes, the bottled water is full of chemicals such as arsenic and bisphenol a. But, after all this, the companies are merely meeting the demands of the customers. The bottle industries have every constitutional right to do what they do. Its not just bottled water companies that pollute and waste, all industries do it. So, economically, it would be unfair to prohibit the bottle companies from doing business. The bottled water companies aren’t the criminals; the criminals are the ignorant consumers of America, who with each bottle purchased are supporting the destruction and forcing companies to do the harm that they do.
Bottling water requires an immeasurable amount of fossil fuels. Not only the bottles themselves, but the entire manufacturing process from mountain spring to 7-Eleven shelf. First the bottles must be made. The bottles themselves are made of plastic. They are also “disposable” meaning the bottles are designed to be used once. Unfortunately the bottles designed to be used once are made out of PET plastic which lasts for 100s of years after those ten minutes of use. According to Meghan O'Rourke, author of Water Water Everywhere, “PET is a flexible, durable, light plastic that “revolutionized” the industry... It turned water into an anywhere, anytime beverage.” At least PET is recyclable, so the bottles can be reused again. But the little hard plastic caps are not. The new plastic bottles then must be

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    For starters, looking at “The Curse of Water Bottles” using water bottles isn’t always the best idea. Granted, when water bottles first came out, it was amazing. They’re easy for parties, traveling, going to the zoo, but it also proves how lazy we have become. We can’t get up and get a glass of water anymore. This increases the demand for water bottles which increases the manufacturing of them, but this increases the danger that are involved. “If you filled a fourth of any…

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tapped Film Analysis

    • 689 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the documentary “Tapped” many items are discussed about bottled water companies and how they operate. The films shows how companies are making huge profits off of water from public waterways and how these companies are making cool, refreshing bottles of water not so safe or refreshing.…

    • 689 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    So that means when people say that bottled and tap water are completely different they just don’t know the truth. on the website wecare2.com it talks about how,”40 percent of all bottled water in the U.S. is actually taken from municipal water sources.” The article then continues saying that,” Bottled water companies are literally bottling up the same water that comes out of your faucet, jacking up the price and laughing all the way to the bank.” So how can bottles water be any more special than tap water when it’s the same…

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In this article “The Case Against Bottled Water”, Petty and Trudeau (2008) claim that people should stop drinking bottled water. The first reasons consist that tap water has more quality control than bottled water. Also, dangerous substances are found in plastic water bottles. The second reasons is about the grave environmental consequences on the consumption bottled water. Statistics about energy consumption to produce bottle water, show that it is necessary a large quantity of freshwater. In addition, high energy consumptions is required to process a bottled of water for the consumer. Moreover, the environment and the food chain are vulnerable by the number of empty bottles that are thrown in inappropriate places. The last reasons is involving…

    • 248 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tom Standageaug also reports one fourth of the bottled water in Cleveland contained more chemicals than tap water. Almost every city regulates its tap water to make sure it is not polluted. If someone lives in the country with well water all they have to do is check it regularly. In addition, several bottled water enthusiast claim recycling solves the environmental problem. The Water Project states only one fifth of water bottles recycled. This is nothing and does not help the environment. Bottled water is worse than tap water unless there are specific circumstances.…

    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tap Water vs. Bottled Water "The U.S. public goes through about 50 billion water bottles a year, and most of those plastic bottles are not recycled" (Karlstrom, Solvie, and Christine Dell'Amore). Bottled water is harming our environment in many ways. Small things such as transporting these bottles set off fossil fuels which pollutes the air. This could have a huge impact on our environment in the long run. Tap water is more efficient and healthier for our environment, instead of bottled water.…

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Bottled water goes through the pipes which means that it could infect the environment, and make people sick and give out germs.…

    • 177 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bottled Water vs. Tap

    • 1119 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In our world, pollution is a common factor to the deterioration this planet is facing. Water bottles, when not disposed of properly, lead to pollution. In an online article entitled, “Tap water vs. Bottled Water and the Environment,” it states, “…nearly 90% of bottles are not recycled.” (Karlstrom and Dell'Amore) The failure to recycle leads to serious issues in our environment. Who is to blame for the shortcomings of recycling? We all are. As citizens of America, we have a responsibility to recycle as soon as the bottle is in our possession. Even when transporting bottled water for production and sale, a significant amount of fossil fuels and carbon dioxide is produced causing much fuel usage. Although bottled water should not be blamed for all of the earth’s environmental issues, there is quite a bit of damage it has caused already and this should be a caveat for water bottle drinkers. On another side, tap water does not need the production of bottles so fossil fuels would not be utilized as much. The article explains that the environment would be 17.6 million barrels of oil richer if people consumed tap water over bottled water. (Karlstrom and Dell'Amore). Tap water could be consumed in washable glasses preventing the disposal of trash to end up on the landfills. Tap water is also used for other reasons besides drinking, for…

    • 1119 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Did you know that more than one billion bottles of water end up in California’s landfills each year, taking 1,000 years to biodegrade and leaking toxic additives such as phthalates into the groundwater? Bottled water should be banned from schools all across the U.S. because studies have shown that only about 14% of bottled water makes it to the recycle bin. The other 86% are left to be littered, wasted, landfilled, or incinerated.…

    • 312 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Along with that, bottled water has seemed to affect this planet more than any other type of plastic on this earth. Plastic is not biodegradable overnight which causes a large amount of unneeded pollution to this planet. The bottles of water pile up and pile up, and seemingly never end. Thousands of dollars have been used to buy bottled water, and thousands of dollars have been used to try to dispose of it. Couldn’t that money be used somewhere more useful?…

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Most people think that bottled water is a hazard to the environment, bottle water companies are now coming up with ways to manage and use different water resources. Bottled water also counts for less than 4% of trash in landfills, while such things such as aluminum counts count up to a bigger percentage. Bottled water can also be recycled, and the parts that are recycled are soon turned into…

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bottled Water Issues

    • 1895 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Bottled water flows with many issues. The most important issue is the health impact not only for humans, but for watersheds. Bottled water companies pump 75 gallons per minute in some places (Hopey). Bottling companies take water from different areas that sometimes need the water for municipal uses. For example in the small town, Bakersville, the bottling company in Somerset County wants to come in and bottle up the water from Laurel Hill Creek that supports it. By bottling the water in this small river, the water levels are dropping, which is causing fish and other species to die off (Hopey). In this small river there is a fish hatchery, which breeds a breed of salmon that is close to being an endangered species. By drawing too much water, the fish in this hatchery won’t survive and all the efforts will be lost. In addition the water is being consumed faster than the regions near the bodies of water can replenish the water tables. Examples where this is being seen is in the Great Lakes are and Texas. Farmers and Fishermen are directly affected by these drops.(Arnold)…

    • 1895 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Bottled Water

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “Americans are drinking bottled water in record numbers—a whopping 5 billion gallons in 2001” (IBWA). Drinking water is an essential to all living beings, especially human beings. The concern globally is people are not getting enough water to help replace whatever they have lost through the normal bodily functions. Bottled water has great contributions when it comes to Americans. Americans of this century have grown up on bottled water; it becomes second nature to them to not buy bottled water.…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Drinking Bottled Water

    • 1313 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Stores can remove all the bottled water from their shelves so that customers cannot purchase it. In " FDA Regulates the Safety of Bottled Water Beverages Including Flavored Water and Nutrient-Added Water Beverages", it is stated that "FDA monitors and inspects bottled water products and processing plants under its food safety program. When FDA inspects plants, the Agency verifies that the plant's product water and operational water supply are obtained from an approved source; inspects washing and sanitizing procedures; inspects bottling operations; and determines whether the companies analyze their source water and product water for contaminants." (U.S. Food and Drug Administration.). This exert goes to show that there are many aspects of the bottle water industry that are closely inspected. This insures that bottled water comes from a safe reliable source and that the places that are responsible for packaging the water is clean. This also relates back to third world countries, if you compare water from there and water that is bottled, bottled water is significantly safer. The safety of bottled water and the portability combined could take the 80% of loss of life and possibly decrease…

    • 1313 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the biggest concerns is the loss of jobs of those that produce and ship bottled water. According to bottledwater.org, the production of bottled water “directly or indirectly employed approximately 471,700 Americans in 2013”. By getting rid of the bottled water industry, it’s getting rid of a large mass of jobs. Furthermore many have concerns about the safety of tap water. Often times people will describe their tap water as smelling strange, tasting strange, or tasting strange. In a risk perception study done at Purdue University, “Many interviewees considered health risks from sources of water when choosing what to drink” (Saylor, et al. 598). Many were concerned about the potential risks of bacteria, “I always think about the bacteria that can be floating in it…” (Saylor, et al.…

    • 1401 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays