water plastics
How much energy is used to make one 8oz plastic water bottle?
I’m doing a project for environmental science and I’ve decided to stop buying plastic water bottles and switch to using one stainless steel water bottle. I’m trying to figure out how much energy I’m saving by not using so much plastic. Help?
The journal article below estimates that a 1 liter PET water bottle requires 4 MJ of energy to produce. Therefore, an 8 oz bottle would require about 1 MJ. Also, it is estimated that 17 million barrels of oil are directly used to produce plastic water bottles every year. So it is definitely energy efficient to go with stainless steel bottles.
water plastics
Bottled Water Saving The Children
You hear a lot about how horrible bottled water is and I’ve been wondering lately, “Are there any good things about bottled water?” Well, it turns out that the lowly water bottle might just be the little hero that saved the day. You know the type, the one who everyone dislikes until they step forward and perform a heroic feat. And a heroic feat they indeed performed.
I, like everyone else in the world, was glued to the television watching the unfolding disaster in Haiti on CNN. I was wondering how any of those unfortunate people were going to survive? Anyone following Anderson Cooper’s journey’s could see they were in big trouble and were going to need the basics of food, water and shelter just to make it through for the next few days. Thankfully, the airport opened quickly and aid started pouring in. One of the things that I noticed accompanying almost every emergency team were pallets of bottled water. One of the first to arrive on the scene of the disaster was a Search and Rescue Team from Iceland and they brought with them bottled water donated by Icelandic Glacial. Yep…it was bottled water that was coming to the rescue– not free tap water, not an aluminum or heavy plastic refillable bottle. Yes, it was the much maligned, standard plastic, one time use, water bottle that came to the rescue of millions of Haitians.
Without bottled water what would have become of thousands of Haitian children, and the elderly, the most vulnerable of those affected during the quake? What would have happened if the “Ban the Water Bottle Movement” had been successful in eliminating bottled water all together? Studies are showing that when convenient bottled water isn’t available consumers are replacing it with other convenience drinks—mostly unhealthy soft drinks. Thankfully, bottled water was available for this crisis.
I believe we need the bottled water industry. For me bottled water is an important part of our national security, providing us the ability to quickly deploy search and rescue, emergency medical and military to disaster situations like the ones we’ve had in the past and like the one that Haiti is experiencing.
Having said all of this, Haiti will find itself awash in a sea of plastic bottle pollution. Hopefully recycling organizations are looking ahead and developing contingency plans to handle sudden surges of plastic pollution. Organizations such as the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR) or National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR), who have the expertise to develop plastic recovery programs, will be able to dust off the plans they have developed and put them into action once a disaster strikes. Recycling is important before, during and after these types of emergencies.
We all know how important recycling is, don’t we?
Currently here in the U.S., recycling is only able to recover 20-30 percent of plastic bottle waste which is sold and shipped to companies that make items out of the plastic bottles such as carpet, clothing, grocery tote bags, post consumer plastic bottles and many other items. Unfortunately, the other 70-80 percent will go to the landfill. Standard PET plastic, the kind of plastic used to manufacture bottles for soft drinks, teas, water, etc., is an extremely durable plastic. PET is almost the perfect container for beverages; it is light weight, doesn’t leach harmful chemicals, has an excellent shelf life and is able to withstand the pressures of carbonated drinks. But the major problem with PET is that it is so durable it doesn’t want to decompose so PET that finds its way into a landfill will languish there for hundreds or thousands of years.
There is a better answer–biodegradable plastic bottles. ENSO Bottles, has developed a biodegradable plastic bottle that can be recycled and if it gets into a landfill environment will biodegrade leaving behind biogases. These are then captured and can be used to produce clean energy. Biodegradable bottles aren’t the final answer to solving plastic pollution but they are a positive step in developing new products to improve our environment.
Research continues to develop new products that will reduce the use of fossil fuels and develop plastics that are more sustainable for our environment. ENSO supports recycling and is working hand-in-hand with recycling organizations. The goal is to increase consumer recycling rates for plastic. However, as long as 70-80 percent goes to a landfill, the only answer is the ENSO biodegradable plastic bottle.
Pray we won’t have another disaster; however, should another hurricane or earthquake wreck havoc, look for the lowly water bottle coming to the rescue again, hopefully in an environmentally friendly biodegradable plastic bottle.
Max
“Bottles for a Healthier Earth”
About the Author
What is best to carry around water and lemon juice other than a plastic bottle?
I have plastic water bottles that I drink from and now heard they are not good for you. I also now always put lemon juice in my water and heard the acidic contect just makes it even more unsafe to drink.
What is a good product I can use to carry this around in now? What about stainless steel?
In your stomach?
try one of those Sigg bottles, they’re really good (the inside coating is impenetrable and lasts 20 years, it’s very healthy)
Soft plastic, shallow water fishing
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