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DHS and its students should not be contributing to pollution when a free water resource, drinking fountains, are available
By Alli Skiba
There is an epidemic facing the United States, and it seems to be caused by the lazy population. U.S. landfills are overflowing with over two million tons of discarded plastic water bottles according to The Water Project, and that is only 20% of the United States’ use of water bottles; the rest litter the streets.
Water bottles might seem like they have little impact on pollution, but it takes over 1.5 million barrels of oil to meet the demand of U.S. water bottle manufacturing each year alone. That number does not even begin to cover the fossil fuel usage and emission cost of greenhouse gases needed to transport the final product to the market.
If just half of the school consumed two water bottles a day (which is an understatement) then at least 207,600 water bottles would be used in this school during one school year. Contributing that much to pollution is just pointless when there is a cheaper . . . no, free resource available: drinking fountains.
“It seems over-purified, which is good. But to me, it’s not better.” — Senior Raymond Hall
Just to scratch the surface on the mass pollution disposable water bottles cause, the plastic used to create these bottles take approximately 1,000 years to biodegrade in landfills and, if incinerated, produce fumes toxic to all.
“I drink most of my water out of a reusable bottle,” freshman Maddy Even said, “I buy plastic bottles and fill up my water bottle.”
Although the distinct sound of crackling plastic water bottles is annoying, putting water from plastic bottles into a reusable bottle does not help the environment.
“I do try to recycle all of the bottles I buy,” Even said.
Contrary to popular belief, recycling hardly helps this epidemic. Even if it had a larger impact, only one out of five water bottles ends up in a recycling bin.
“Based on temperature and looks alone, it’s the best. It looks very clean, and pure. But they all taste the same!” — English Teacher Barry Mergler
However, this environmental plague could be fought by working together to halt the sale of water bottles sold. It may seem ridiculous to forbid plastic water bottle sales, but some states, and even countries, have prohibited it already.
The normality of drinking water out of a plastic pollutant has made one in five Americans drink solely bottled water. “I only drink water from bottles,” junior Liz Martinez said.
The price gap between bottled water and tap water is over 5,000%. Imagine if a gallon of milk at the supermarket had a price increase of 5,000%. The milk that originally costs $3.50 would cost $175. Normally, demand for anything that severely overpriced would decrease dramatically, but instead sales for water have tripled in the last 10 years.
What may surprise you is that studies show that bottled water is no safer than tap water. This means the 5000% overpriced water is hardly better than the sink water in the school’s bathrooms. It makes no sense to drink exclusively plastic water bottles!
Drinking fountains are stationed in schools for a reason, and reuseable water bottles range from $5-25 so the battle against plastic water bottles could be won easily. This battle, however, can only be won if people stop buying plastic water bottles.
“I carry my water bottle with me most of the time,” junior Shiona Harvey said. “If more people could come to the realization that water is water, more people could drink using reusable cups, and less pollution would be made.”
The taste between water is hardly distinguishable, “I can’t really taste a difference,” Mr. Mergler said during his taste test.
Team up with me and fill your water bottles with cheaper (or free) water to at the least slow down the consumption of water from plastic.
“I always feel better when I drink from my water bottle,” Harvey said.
