I am lost without my reusable water bottle. Drinking from the 32oz blue Camelbak that I tote around in my backpack is an integral part of my day; I can feel when it's not in my backpack, I can sense when I left it in a classroom, and I'll never leave for the gym without it.
So you'll understand me when I say I cannot comprehend that not everyone has adopted their own reusable water bottle. It's convenient, cost-efficient, and environmentally friendly. What's stopping you? Your love of plastic? Or more specifically, your love of killing our planet?
When I see people purchasing plastic water bottles, it legitimately makes me cringe. First of all, we're fortunate enough to live in a country where we have an incredible amount of access to clean drinking water. Yet the U.S. consumes approximately 30 billion water bottles each year. And only 27% of that plastic is being recycled. If we have the privilege of accessing clean tap water, why throw absurd amounts of money into a business that is killing our planet?
(Side note: Flint, Michigan still doesn't have this privilege. It's been over 1,300 days. Don't forget about them just because they aren't on the front page of the newspaper every day.)
Not only does bottled water cost 300 to 2,000 times more than tap water, but producing bottled water requires up to 2,000 times the energy cost of producing tap water. Think about all the times that you've gone to sporting events or concerts where they charge you upwards of $5 for a water bottle, and then think about how many people actually pay that.
Do you love the oceans and their inhabitants? Awesome, me too! Did you know that according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation , it is estimated that there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050? Every square mile of the ocean has over 46,000 pieces of plastic in it.
Here's another thing to think about: this is no one's fault but our own. We did this to ourselves. If you're as disgusted by these statistics as you should be, start doing something to fix it.
The point is, plastic water bottle usage is getting completely out of hand. Grab a $12 reusable water bottle from Walmart and call it a day. Mother Earth will thank you.
