Metal Reusable
vs.
Plastic Water Bottles
Senior Seminar
By: Andrew Wheat
Andrew Wheat
Period 6
Plastic Water Bottles
Since the existence of humans, people have tried many ways to transport water from its
natural habitat. Some of the first people to do this were the Romans who invented aqueducts
to carry water from its source into cities for drinking and cleaning. In small quantities, water
was carried in vases, animal skin and hand woven materials. Nowadays, people have a growing
need for water in personal quantities that is portable.
Plastic was invented in the 19th century but was first used to replace common materials
such as rubber, ivory, and shellac. The first plastic was made up of an organic matter that
derived from cellulose. This matter is called celluloid and was created to replace ivory in
billiards balls. Along with billiards balls this plastic is still used today as photography film.
Before water was mass produced in bottles the only way to drink it was out of a glass.
People wanted a way to drink it on the go. This is where the bottle became introduced. It is
a durable material that could hold the water without having to worry about
spilling it. Plastic water bottles were believed to be the most efficient way of
packaging and selling water. Now, consumers are struggling to keep the plastic
out of their homes.
Plastic water bottles are made many different ways. Multi-use water
bottles can be made from high-density polyethylene, low-density
polyethylene, copolyester, or polypropylene. The only noticeable difference
between these different types of plastic is how durable and flexible each one
is. Copolyester and polypropylene bottles offer the greatest rigidity and
durability. Once you have a liquid form of the plastic, Injection Stretch Blow
Molding is introduced. The liquid plastic is poured into a cavity where a test
tube shape is formed. Next, it is reheated and softened for step 2. In the
second step, the test tube shape is filled with hot air with a lot of force causing
the softened plastic to expand to the mold surrounding it. This process is
known as Blow Molding. This process is most common due to the efficiency
and production speed. Blow molding can produce thousands of plastic water
bottles per day.
One other way plastic water bottles are made is by a process called
Thermo molding. In this process, plastic sheets are first heated until pliable.
Then, these softened sheets are formed around a vacuum mold which sucks
the plastic around the mold perfectly.
There are many positives to using a plastic water bottle, but there are
two sides to every story. Portability is one of the biggest reasons for the
growing production of plastic water bottles. People nowadays are constantly
on the go and need easy ways to stay hydrated. This is why humans don’t
think twice when buying a cold water bottle from the store. Water bottles are
easy to carry and easy to dispose of. Once you are done simply throw the
bottle away and no longer do you have extra weight of an empty water bottle.
Though the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says that the
chemicals used in plastics that make water bottles are safe, they don’t account
for when the bottle is sitting in the sun under excessive heat. The longer a
water bottle sits in the sun, the more chemicals seep into the water. One
specific chemical called Bisphenol A mimics estrogen which has a negative
health effect and can effect reproduction.
When humans decide to dispose of their bottles they rarely think to
recycle. They just want to get rid of the bottle causing unhealthy disposal.
Littering or throwing in a normal waste receptacle is not good!
Only 23% of all plastic water bottles is actually recycled. Over 38 billion
water bottles are filling up landfills, and counting. In 2008 more than 2.4
billion pounds of plastic bottles were recycled. Either Recycle, Reuse, or
Refuse plastic water bottles. These 3 R’s have created a movement to limit the
amount of plastic that end up polluting the environment every single day. The
average American consumed 1.6 gallons of bottled water in 1976. In 2006,
that number jumped to 28.3 gallons. Recycled bottles provide an
environmentally friendly source for making new products and replaces
recycled material for new plastic. Recycled plastic bottles make hundreds of
everyday products, including fleece jackets, carpeting and lumber for outdoor
decking. Recycling one ton of plastics saves 7.4 cubic yards of landfill space.
An island in Australia in called Christmas Island is home to one of the
most polluted beaches in the world. Greta Beach accumulates hundreds of
pounds of plastic pollution every week. Of all this plastic, 70% is water bottles.
The reason for this pollution is failure to dispose of their waste properly. If
each human consumer of bottled water recycle their bottles correctly beaches
like this on Christmas island would be a lot more environmentally healthy.
The water bottle industry had changed dramatically over the last
decade due to the amount of pollution from plastic. Most of these changes
include changes to the design of the bottle to reduce the amount of plastic
used in production. Some companies have trimmed down as much plastic as
possible scrapping any piece of plastic they can from their old design. These
changes include making a smaller cap, thinner bottles, and smaller labels, all
reducing amount of overall plastic used.
In an effort to help the health of the environment, competition of plastic
water bottles has increased in the last decade. Metal reusable water bottles
are the biggest competition to plastic because they are the best alternative
and last much longer. Along with durability they also do not effect the water in
any way like plastic does. Metal bottles do not have the harmful chemicals
leaking into the water such as Bisphenol A. Metal water bottles can be used for
approximately four years and can substitute approximately 300 plastic water
bottles per person per year.
.
The natural resources used to make a plastic water include oil based as
well as plant based. You might not have thought that plastic ever came from a
plant but it does. Although it is rare to put plant based plastic into production
this form of plastic does exist. When it comes to large scale production of
plastic such as water bottles you will find petroleum based plastic. They are
extremely bad for the environment because most of what is produced ends up
in landfills. It also isn't a very smart process since a lot of the goods made out
of these plastics are containers that are used only one time, then thrown out
therefore not needing the durability or shelf life that plastics have. There is a
growing market for bioplastics. It is often used to describe plastics that
biodegrade much faster than petroleum based plastics. These plastics are
made out of things like corn and/or bagasse. Over 60 to 100 million barrels of
oil are used in the producing plastic bags alone Americans purchase an
estimated 29.8 billion plastic water bottles every year, of which nearly 8 out of
10 of those plastic bottles end up in landfills.