The Life of a Plastic Bottle
You likely consume 167 bottles of water each year. One hundred of those are thrown away into the environment like there is no tomorrow. For each of those bottles, an immensely long, intricate, and carbon-intensive process takes place from beginning to end. This is the journey of three plastic bottles.
Bottle One
Bottle one represents most bottles. Its journey starts from deep in the Earth. Oil is extracted and sent hundreds of miles to an oil refinery. Here, the oil is altered into fine particles, and sent to another factory to create dozens of different items. In one of those plants, the powder is melted to form the plastic bottle. Then the bottle is shipped to a bottling plant. Here, if it's one of the 64% of all disposable bottles, it's filled with regular tap water and packaged. Otherwise, it may be filled with sparkling water. You buy it, drink it, and throw it away, where it's left decomposing for thousands of years in the earth.
Bottle Two
Bottle two has a path far worse than the first. But it's a common course. After a sip from you, it's thrown to the ground. Here it rolls, flys, and travels until it reaches the storm sewer or a nearby stream. Then, after dozens of days trekking in the water, it meets the ocean. At this point, it's not the bottle it used to be but rather a series of fragmented plastic pieces. In the sea, it breaks down even further, day after day, until it's a "micro-plastic." It finds its way to one of the great garbage patches and has likely killed marine animals and trapped them. It stays here for thousands of years, across generations beyond you.
Bottle Three
Bottle three is part of the 20% of disposable water bottles recycled. Its journey starts the same as all the rest. But once it reaches your hands, it takes a different turn. You drink the refreshingly cold H2O in minutes, using the bottle for its only purpose. As you walk to the trash, you stop. You remember the bottle's plight and take a step to the right. Here, the bottle enters the recycling bin, and later a larger one, until it’s on a truck to a recycling plant. With all other types of plastic, it is compressed into a cube, shredded, and melted once again. But this time it's different, it can be reincarnated into anything: from a rug to a chair, a sleeping bag to a jacket, even another bottle. It continues in this cycle until someone decides to choose the trash over the recycling bin.
Ironically, we use all these resources (17 Million Barrels of Oil, 2.5 Million Tonnes of CO2, 16.4 Billion Gallons of Water) to hold a small amount of water. You can help change this. Take the simple step of using a reusable water bottle and saying no to plastic. And if you need one, don't be one of the 80% of people who throw it away. Recycle it! Support bottle three.
Detailed Source Overview
Hey there! Below you can find the sources we used to tell the story of these three bottles. Please contact us if you have any questions regarding these sources.
Our Sources
"Bottled Water and Energy Fact Sheet - Pacific Institute." Pacific Institute, 24 Oct. 2017, https://pacinst.org/publication/bottled-water-and-energy-a-fact-sheet/.
Dreams, Common. "Report: 64% of Bottled Water Is Tap Water, Costs 2000x More." EcoWatch, 21 Feb. 2018, https://www.ecowatch.com/bottled-water-sources-tap-2537510642.html.
"Facts about Plastic Bottles." EQUA - Sustainable Water Bottles, 14 Dec. 2015, https://myequa.com/blogs/blog/89626311-facts-about-plastic-bottles.
Peçanha, Sergio. "Opinion | Congrats! You Dump 100 Plastic Bottles in Nature Each Year." The Washington Post, 19 Feb. 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/19/congrats-you-dump-100-plastic-bottles-nature-each-year/.
"Plastics: Material-Specific Data | US EPA." US EPA, 12 Sept. 2017, https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/plastics-material-specific-data.
