Time to stop using plastic disposable water bottles

As a teenager, I went to high school in Exeter Township, and it was here that I first noticed a big issue — plastic disposable water bottles. Everywhere. On nearly every desk of students and teachers, for sale in the cafeteria, and in locker rooms for every sports team. While I thought it was great that my classmates were staying hydrated, I was concerned about where all of bottles would end up after they were thrown away.

So, I decided to do some digging. I used three different social media platforms to conduct a survey of anyone who lives in Berks County asking whether or not they use disposable water bottles regularly. Of 220 total people who participated, 56 percent said they do, indeed, use disposable bottles regularly. That is 123 people. If all of those people used plastic water bottles only three times a week, that would be 369 bottles a week. In a year, 19,188 bottles.

This sample size is small compared to the 411,442 people living in Berks County as of 2017. One can only imagine the millions of bottles being disposed of a year. And while you might be thinking, “what about recycling?,” the truth is, many of those plastic bottles never end up being recycled. In fact, according to the Container Recycling Institute, 60 million water bottles are thrown away instead of recycled every day in the U.S.

So why do we still use disposable water bottles? There are tons of alternatives that are cheaper, and just as “pure.” Is it time for Berks to make a change? I think so.