The problem with plastic

SarahEmily D'Agostino, A&E Editor

One thing I notice every day on campus is water bottles. I like seeing the different reusable water bottles and the stickers that decorate them, as well as the different kinds of single-use water bottles that students tend to use. 

I find it interesting that even though the recycling bin is right next to the trashcan I still see students throwing their single-use water bottles into the trash can. These trashcans are emptied and taken to mass landfills.

Statistically speaking, over eighty percent of plastic water bottles end up in landfills. It then takes 1,000 years for each bottle to decompose and with over 2 million tons of discarded water bottles sitting in these vast garbage plains there is no way for this generation to completely fix the problems we have caused. Americans continue to buy over 29 billion single-use water bottles a year. For every six bottles people buy, only one is recycled. 

We’ve all seen the meme of the VSCO girl and her HydroFlask, but I think we can all agree that the hype that surrounded that meme has led to thousands of reusable water bottles being purchased. 

Now HydroFlask’s are definitely on the expensive end of the water bottle price range, but even buying a five-dollar water bottle from Target or Walmart is going to help bring down the insane amount of single-use plastic being used.

I even see different organizations giving out free reusable water bottles nearly every day. So why do students continue to use single-use water bottles? We all hear about the statistics of landfills from the news, instagram ads, etc., but still we don’t take that one step towards a less plastic filled society. Even companies like AdoreMe, a lingerie company, mentioned the use of single-use plastic in their most recent advertisement.

Countries like Peru and Australia have put extreme restrictions on single-use plastics, while others like Kenya and France are banning them outright. Even China, the most populated country in the entire world, is beginning to plan ways to phase single-use plastic out of their country for good.  

I know we can’t change the world over night, especially not in the consumer driven society that we live in, which is why companies like Coca-Cola and Pepsi have said they will not switch their bottles to more sustainable options. They have said that as long as the consumer wants the single-use plastic bottles, they will continue to make them.

There are a lot of cost efficient and environmentally safe ways to lessen the amount of plastic water bottles we throw away every day. Buying a reusable water bottle doesn’t have to cost as much as a HydroFlask, buying a simple reusable bottle from Walmart is just as effective. Some water companies are even putting their water in cans, boxes, seaweed pods, and in other sustainable containers. 

Next time ResLife or any of the food services on campus offer you a free reusable water bottle, take it. Use it. 

I know we all only make up a small portion of the population, but without each person attempting to end the use of single-plastic water bottles our landfills will only grow and grow with plastic. 

SarahEmily is a senior English major and is the A&E Editor for The Voice.