Plastic Bottle Hazard Kait Brogan

Plastic bottle statics 5.1 billion: Amount, in pounds, of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and jars available in the U.S. for recycling in ,456 million: Amount, in pounds, of plastic bottles – including PET and HDPE – recycled in 2009, making it a record high. 46: Number of plastics collection programs that were added to U.S. communities in : Percentage of PET plastic bottles that got recycled in : Percentage increase in 2009 of RPET (Recycled PET) used in food and beverage bottles. 2/3: The amount of energy that is saved when producing new plastic products from recycled materials instead of raw (virgin) materials. It also reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Six: The number of hours that the energy conserved from recycling a single plastic bottle can light a 60-watt light bulb. 19: The number of 20 oz. PET bottles it takes to yield enough fiber for an extra large T-shirt or one square foot of carpet.

What we are doing Americans buy more bottled water than any other nation in the world, adding 29 billion water bottles a year to the problem. In order to make all these bottles, manufacturers use 17 million barrels of crude oil. That’s enough oil to keep a million cars going for twelve months. Unfortunately, for every six water bottles we use, only one makes it to the recycling bin. The rest are sent to landfills. Or, even worse, they end up as trash on the land and in rivers, lakes, and the ocean. Plastic bottles take many hundreds of years to disintegrate. We use 2 million plastic beverage bottles every 5 minutes in the U.S People love the convenience of bottled water. But maybe if they realized the problems it causes, they would try drinking from a glass at home or carrying water in a refillable steel container instead of plastic. Some people drink bottled water because they think it is better for them than water out of the tap, but that’s not true. In the United States, local governments make sure water from the faucet is safe. There is also growing concern that chemicals in the bottles themselves may leach into the water.

Recycling Recycling one plastic bottle can save enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for six hours. Plastic bottle recycling can help—instead of going out with the trash, plastic bottles can be turned into items like carpeting or cozy fleece clothing. By recycling 1 plastic bottle not only saves anywhere from 100 to 1000 years in the landfill but also saves the environment from the emissions in producing new bottles as well as the oil used to produce that bottle For every 1 ton of plastic that is recycled we save the equivalent of 2 people’s energy use for 1 year, the amount of water used by 1 person in 2 month’s time and almost 2000 pounds of oil. Approximately 60% of our rubbish thrown away today could be recycled. Not having millions of plastic bottles in the landfill results in a saving of 6.7 cubic meters of landfill space that is at a premium right now. Plastic bottles also take an average of 500 years to biodegrade Recycled bottles can provide an environmentally friendly source of materials for the manufacture of new products and substitutes recycle materials for virgin materials. When a ton of plastic bottles are recycled approximately 3.8 barrels of petroleum is saved

What you can do 1. Avoid drinking bottled water. There’s nothing wrong with the water that comes out of your tap, and it’s free! 2. Use a SodaStream to make your own fizzy drinks from tap water, instead of spending lots of money on bottled fizzy drinks. 3. If you have to buy bottles, try to reuse them. You could use them as plant pots, money jars or anything else that you can think of. 4. If you want to take a drink with you when you go out, use a reusable and washable bottle instead of buying a bottled drink from the shop. And yes, you can make a difference