You are walking on the beach. It is a beautiful sun filled day with a bright blue sky. You breathe in moist, warm air. You hear children splashing and laughing all around and see people tanning and relaxing. As you walk you see the lifeguards in their towers and definitely admire the view of their golden, lean and muscular bodies. The sand is getting a little too warm under your feet so you decide to approach the water’s edge. You look out to the ocean with its beautiful power, it sparkles like diamonds and you take in the mighty roar of the waves. You feel the wave’s splash against your feet and the water is as warm and clear as bathwater. You dig your feet into the sand curling wads of sand between your toes. You are thinking to yourself you are one of the luckiest people alive to be in this beautiful spot on this beautiful day. Mother Nature’s smiles upon you and you are awestruck at the beauty of nature. But WAIT! All of a sudden you feel something striking the top of your foot. You smile and think to yourself "I bet it is a beautiful sea shell that I will be able to add to my collection! You look down with cheerful anticipation and instead of that perfect seashell for your collection you see a plastic bottle lapping against your foot. Instantaneously you feel repulsed and disgusted. One of your ewwwwww feelings washes over you. You wonder to yourself "Where did THIS disgusting thing come from"? Then you think "why is it here"? When I tried to answer my own question I came to the conclusion that each one of us is part of the problem and we need to do something about it.
At Hamilton College in Clinton, NY I was privileged to hear Al Gore speak. His talk about the environment and the damage that each of us are doing to mother earth inspired me to become more informed about the world's clean water issues and how each of us contribute to the destruction of it each and every day.
Since the commencement of human history, people have explored various conditions to accomplish getting fresh water from its source to their settlements. Even as early as 4000 BCE in ancient India their writings revealed that they recognized and recommended drinking water treatments such as filtration through charcoal, exposing water to sunlight, boiling and/or straining it to improve water safety. In 400 BCE Hippocrates, a Greek physician, also known as the "father of medicine" supported the claim that good quality water is needed to maintain a healthy lifestyle and he suggested boiling and filtering drinking water. Historians such as Ramjee in 2010 noted that as far back as the height of the Roman Empire, 312 BCE, aqueducts that traveled 57 miles to reach the civilization, were designed, labored and built for the purpose of bringing and to distributing clean water to the Roman people. In the 1800's the American Frontier was settled and the settlers as well as the American Indians recognized that life was sustained by fresh, non-contaminated water sources. It was not until over hundred years later that the first water quality standards for drinking water were developed by the federal government in the United States. The United States began to recognize the contamination of fresh fish hatcheries and its impact on public health and in 1959 the U.S passed legislation that controlled pollution of waters from farming fish. In the 1970's the Clean Water Act was signed into law and regulated the discharge of pollutants into the water in the United States but at the same time a site just over 100 miles from our homes called the Love Canal in Buffalo, NY was discovered to have been a dump site for chemical wastes and it was leaking into the local drinking water supply causing multiple cancer outbreaks. Just this morning on the NBC news it was reported that residents of Long Island New York have concerns because 16,000-18,000 cars are parked after the super storm Sandy were leaking chemicals into their drinking water.
As the government and American people attempted to regulate waste and contamination into drinking water sources, some companies searched for ways to move water. According to Ramjee American companies started to pump water and sold it in glass bottles, but after the plastic revolution in the mid-20th century, plastic became the more exceptional option.
Do you know how many plastic water bottles get thrown in the trash every year? Approximately 50 BILLION plastic water bottles end up in U.S. land fills each year. This number breaks down to 140 MILLION EACH DAY!!! The plastic waste issue is not exclusive to the United States; it has become a world-wide problem. Did you know that currently there is a growing "garbage patch" of plastic estimated to be more than twice the size of Texas floating in the North Pacific Ocean today as I speak?
According to The Environmental Conservation Law of 1971 legislation known as the Bottle Bill became law. This bottle bill allows for each container to be valued at a 5 to 10 cent refundable deposit on plastic bottle beverage containers. This law was an attempt by the American government to ensure a high rate of recycling and eventual reuse. Bottle Bills conserve energy and natural resources, create new businesses and jobs, reduce waste disposal costs and reduce litter that end up in the landfills every year. We contribute 40-60% of all litter in the United States with drinking beverage bottles alone. Each time a plastic beverage bottle is manufactured it contributes more greenhouse gas emissions into our breathing atmosphere. Every time that we recycle a water bottle we are actively helping to reduce the energy needed to produce new containers. Since the enactment of the Bottle Bill it is disturbing to think that there are only 11 states that have put a five or ten cent deposit on plastic water bottles. They are Maine, Massachusetts, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Michigan, Oregon, Vermont and our own State of New York.
Water bottles are made from PET or polyester, which is the most common plastic used for containers that are designed to be discarded. Once you have recycled your plastic drinking bottle the crushed bottles are sent to a factory compressed, formed into bales and presented for sale to recycling companies. Once sold, this PET waste is frayed into minute fragments and these fragments can then be put into the production and used in the making of item such as carpets, clothing and pillows. Even the shirt that I have on today was made from recycled plastic drinking bottles.
Soon our future children will ask themselves "What were our parents thinking? Why didn't they realize that they are part of the problem and get up and do something about it when they had a chance"? So next time you drink water from a plastic bottle think before you drink.
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