If there is one thing more ridiculous about humans than our incessant consumption of plastic bags it is our devotion to bottled water. For whatever reason, somewhere along the way we stupid monkeys decided that water sold in a bottle (at prices higher than gasoline) is so much better than the stuff that comes out of the tap. News flash for anyone who didn't know already: most bottled water comes from the tap anyway!
Now it's not like I've never drunk a bottled water. It's a fine refresher when there's nothing else around. But so it the hose.
Americans down more than 8.25 billion gallons of plastic bottled water a year, resulting in some 70 million empty PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles per day. Less than half of those bottles are recycled.
Let's forget about the implications this has for water privatization and the notion of commoditizing the most essential element of life. These empty plastic bottles are a scourge on the planet.
So what, just recycle more... right? Well, recycling plastic is not as environmentally sound as it may seem. First of all, plastic generally only has about one life cycle since, unlike glass, it can't be burned at a high enough temperature to kill all the bacteria. In other words, plastic bottles don't become plastic bottles: they might become toys or bleach containers or insulation. Regardless, every bottle of water you buy is a fresh bottle, forged with petroleum, never to decompose or exit the ecosystem.
But the crazy thing is that a significant portion of 'recycled' plastic products ends up getting shipped to China where environmental regulations are looser and workers' rights are virtually nonexistent. Though some plastic is able to be recycled here, much of it is too environmentally and economically costly, and so it is loaded onto empty barges on their way back to China. The fact that soaring Chinese demand for petroleum products enables companies to pay extraordinary prices for plastic in virtually any form just exacerbates this reality. Once in China, these products are sorted and melted down (amidst ghastly toxic fumes) by workers earning about $1.50 a day.
It's also possible that exporting plastic waste may be illegal as well, under the rules of the Basel Convention, which bans the export of "hazardous waste" to third world countries and became "law" in 1992. I talked to Jim Puckett at the Basel Action Network, and though his organization focuses mainly on e-waste, plastic waste is something that has him "very concerned."
Next time you crack open a cool bottle of Dasani, first think about how you're paying infinitely more than if your lazy ass had just filled up a Nalgene. Then think about a little Chinese kid sucking in the plastic fumes as that bottle melts... Now that's refreshing.