What damage is plastic waste causing our planet?
So hitting the headlines lately is what damage plastic waste is actually causing the environment!
We all know that sugary drinks are bad for your health and in a recent survey tooth decay on young children is at an all time high. We have known this for a while and the health conscious, consume a lot more water now, probably more than ever as we all know this is the healthy option.
But my question is why have we decided that bottled water is better for us than tap water?
Did you know people buy around 20,000 plastic bottles every second around the world which becomes waste? That adds up to a million bottles every minute and the number keeps rising. Experts predict a 20% increase in plastic bottle use by 2021. Some campaigners warn this could become as serious as climate change.
In 2016, people bought over 480 billion plastic bottles globally. That’s a huge jump from 300 billion just ten years earlier. Laid end to end, those bottles would reach halfway to the sun. By 2021, we could hit 583 billion bottles a year, according to Euromonitor International. Most bottles use PET plastic, which we can recycle.
But waste recycling rates aren’t keeping up with how fast plastic use is growing. Between 4 and 12 million tonnes of plastic enter the ocean every year. That number is likely to rise unless we act fast. A 2016 report warned that, by 2050, ocean plastic could outweigh fish. Divers around the world are trying to clean it up—but they can’t keep up either.
A normal waste plastic bottle takes about 450 years to break down completely, so the components of a bottle dropped in the ocean today could still be polluting the waters for our great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren.
Experts warn that some of it is already finding its way into the human food chain.
Scientists at Ghent University in Belgium recently calculated people who eat seafood ingest up to 11,000 tiny pieces of plastic every year. Last August,the results of a study by Plymouth University reported plastic was found in a third of UK-caught fish, including cod, haddock, mackerel and shellfish. Last year, the European Food Safety Authority called for urgent research, citing increasing concern for human health and food safety “given the potential for microplastic pollution in edible tissues of commercial fish”.
So is drinking bottled water healthier than tap water? You decide with these facts and figures.
Q.Is drinking bottled water safer than tap?
A.Bottled water costs substantially more than what comes from the tap but is not healthier for consumers, a study has suggested. Researchers found bottled variety is subject to far less stringent safety tests than tap water and is much more likely to be contaminated or become a source of infection.
Q.Is bottled water really better for you?
A.It’s healthier compared to sugary sodas and drinks but in fact, one third of all bottled water is tap water.
Q.Last but not least this fact you must take on board for the next generation.
A.Bottled water does not contain the amount of fluoride that tap water does. Therefore, if you only drink bottled water, your teeth are not getting enough fluoride to help strengthen and protect your teeth. Fluoride is a mineral in our drinking water that helps prevent tooth decay in children and adults.
Finally, I will leave that decision with you! I certainly know which route I am taking….
