Pet Bottles Are One Of The Biggest Contributors To Plastic Pollution: Here Are Its Alternatives
We read about it all the time -- landfills are overflowing, marine ecosystems are facing severe degradation, trees and plants are unable to breathe ¨C all because of the use and consumption of a single material: plastics. This is because more than half of the plastic we consume is discarded after one use, they enter into the marine ecosystem and landfills.
The telling numbers
Food and beverages packets generate 31.1% of plastic waste around the world, bottle and container caps 15.5%, plastic bags 11.8% and plastic bottles generate around 7.27% plastic waste that's rotting the world.
More than 480bn plastic drinking bottles were sold in 2016 across the world, up from about 300bn a decade ago. If placed end to end, they would extend more than halfway to the sun. By 2021 this will increase to 583.3bn, according to the most up-to-date estimates from Euromonitor International¡¯s global packaging trends report.
The demand, equivalent to about 20,000 bottles being bought every second, is driven by an apparently insatiable desire for bottled water and the spread of a western, urbanised ¡°on the go¡± culture to China and the Asia Pacific region.?
From convenience to curse?
What sets bottles apart from other plastic products born in the post-World War II rise of consumerism is the sheer speed with which the beverage bottle, now utterly common around the world, has shifted from convenience to curse. The transition played out in a single generation.
Most plastic bottles used for soft drinks and water are made from polyethylene terephthalate (Pet), which is highly recyclable. But as their use soars across the globe, efforts to collect and recycle the bottles to keep them from polluting the oceans, are failing to keep up.
Major drinks brands produce the greatest numbers of plastic bottles. Coca-Cola produces more than 100bn throwaway plastic bottles every year ¨C or 3,400 a second, according to analysis carried out by Greenpeace after the company refused to publicly disclose its global plastic usage.
The top six drinks companies in the world use a combined average of just 6.6% of recycled Pet in their products, according to Greenpeace. A third have no targets to increase their use of recycled plastic and none are aiming to use 100% across their global production.?
When plastic enters our environment without being recovered or recycled, we are failing our planet. Collective action is necessary to curb the use of plastics. Plastics have exposed us to new challenges, but innovation is the key.?
Effective alternatives
We must begin to redesign and rethink our consumption and production. Meanwhile, we must do voluntary actions and efforts to keep plastics at bay, not at sea.
The best alternative for beverage bottles is to carry your own reusable bottle. By ensuring there are water filling stations, which are easily accessible, the urge to buy bottles is constricted.
Both glass and ceramic, while are more prone to breakage than plastic, come in designs that protect the actual bottle. They are very cost efficient, come in tons of unique designs, and are good alternatives to disposable plastic bottles any day. If the customer is looking for something a little sturdier, stainless steel is also an excellent choice.
Some plant-based bottles themselves are edible as well as biodegradable. While no one may want to actually eat them, it¡¯s good to know they are safe, don¡¯t impart the same chemicals as other bottles might, and are a new, effective product on the market.
