For as long as I can remember all my college and university days are filled with the memory of keeping a water bottle in my bag and buying a new one as soon it finished. It was almost a ritual to have a water bottle in front of every seat in a class of odd thirty people.
Although the bottle had soda rather than water in some cases. Indeed, I particularly remember a teacher who wouldn’t enter the classroom without a bottle of coke in his hand.
Suddenly Reality Hit Me
It was during a project on marine life which I was doing for one of my modules that I realized how continuously and unconsciously I was contributing to this extremely serious problem of plastic bottle pollution. And, suddenly the feeling of hatred sunk in. Plastic bottled water was a big hit and revolutionized the industry in the 1980s. So that both top beverage brands Pepsi and Coke jumped into the business to demand their share in the market by producing refiltered tap water.
The easy production of a chemical called PET cultivated a gateway for these giants to supplement their ever-increasing revenue by adding packaged water into their portfolio. As per reports published in National Geographic, plastic bottles and their caps were ranked as third and fourth most collected plastic trash items in the annual September beach cleanups for Ocean Conservancy in more than 100 countries. American consumers purchased about 346 bottles each person and almost a million plastic bottles for various beverages are sold each minute globally.
Global Awakening Has Taken Its Own Time
In recent past, as the awareness about single-use plastic bottles and serious issues related to its consumption has spread globally, many leading brands have started to take initiative to minimize plastic and shown commitment towards the cause for the better future. Coca Cola, Pepsico, Nestle Waters have all pledged to invest in the cause increasing the reusable plastic quantity in their packaging by a significant amount by the year 2025. Similarly, the mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced plans to build 100 new fountains by 2020 to encourage people to carry refillable water bottles. There are so many plastic alternatives that we conveniently ignore to use due to availability of ready-to-use plastic bottles and consider life without plastic is sometimes undoable.
A Closer Analysis Is Required!!
There is no need to indulge deeply into the matter. Just a small effort and each one of us can contribute to decrease plastic bottle pollution by choosing differently. Look for a can while doing your grocery, carry a stainless steel bottle or a reusable bottle alternative on a regular basis. And, whenever you have no choice don’t forget to recycle the plastic bottle instead of throwing it in the trash bin. The day beverage companies will put a price on the returned bottle, the recollection process will also improve significantly. Life without plastic is not a myth, it’s just a matter of choice. Choose wisely, choose for our better future.
