Bottled water is an environmental nightmare. 1500 plastic bottles are consumed EVERY SECOND in the US alone! 80% of these end up in landfills. 17 million barrels of oil are used each year to produce this. Bottled water costs 1000 X more than tap water. Plastic leaches chemicals into the water, which is linked to reproductive issues and cancers. Plastic never biodegrades.
Hundreds of thousands of turtles, whales, marine mammals, and other ocean life perish each year from pollution and ingestion of ocean debris, in addition to over 1 million seabirds. 80% of this trash originates in landfills and from other urban sources. Most of this garbage is carried to the oceans by rivers.
Americans use 380 BILLION plastic bags and wraps each year. It takes 12 million barrels of oil to produce these. Worldwide, 1TRILLION plastic bags are used each year. This equals 100 million barrels of oil. Less than 5% of plastics are recycled worldwide.
All this plastic is destroying life in our oceans...from turtles mistaking plastic bags for jellyfish and consuming them, to seabirds ingesting debris thinking it is a fish, to all creatures becoming entangled in it. Please stop purchasing plastic bottles, using plastic bags, and always cut any plastic rings or mesh into small pieces before placing them for recycling.
HELP SAVE LIVES.
