Friday, 20 June 2008 13:30 by
EmilyR
60 million water bottles are produced and used everyday. What do 60 million water bottles do to our earth? Well those water bottles add upto 4 billion pounds of plastic which are tossed into US landfills each year. This seemingly harmless habit of drinking a bottle of water a day is resulting in up to 1,000 years for that plastic to degrade!I'm going to be a sophomore at the University of Vermont this fall and I can now say, looking back, that I started off my college career as an addict. It was a dangerous addiction that I was forced to overcome, my addiction to plastic water bottles. At school I was introduced to a campaign UVM started called "One Less Bottle". This campaign brought awareness to the growing problem of dependency this country has on water bottles. The amount of water bottles made last year to meet the US's demand required the equivalent to 17 million barrels of oil. Replacing this guilty pleasure could have been enough fuel for one million US cars for a whole year.Not only is this addiction bad for the planet, but it is bad for the people as well. I've dedicated my energy to this cause starting small with the hope of reaching more and more people each day. My family being my primary target, I bought my mother, for her birthday, a water bottle that she can fill and refill every day. This year I've announced to our family that we will have a "Green Christmas" by making and giving earth friendly gifts to each other. My first plan of action is to equip the rest of my family with reusable water bottles. One penny will give a person 357 ounces of tap water compared to .16 ounces of bottled water. Not only is this cause environmentally friendly but incredibly practical for the average family.For readers who are hesitant in joining my cause for the fear of having their water not taste as fresh, let me inform you that as much as 40% of bottled water comes from city water systems, just like tap water. Also, the EPA has a strict requirement that all tap water must be tested daily whereas bottled water only has to be tested once a week. This is a fight worth fighting on so many levels. My goal is to help inform the public of the waste they produce daily that they are completely unaware of. I'm here to ask that we kick the habit together once and for all. I'm here to propose that we take a small but drastic step in bettering our environment for a stronger tomorrow.
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