UDAIPUR: Most plastic bottles produced end up in landfill or in the ocean. Reusing plastic bottles can reduce the demand for new ones to be created. Plastic water bottles have a significant carbon footprint, with the amount of water going into making a bottle being up to 5-6 times of what’s inside the bottle.
Also, bottles used to package water take over a 1,000 years to bio-degrade and, if burnt, produce toxic fumes. Since reuse is a step up from recycling, repurposing plastic bottles is an excellent habit to get to do the share to help save the environment.
The amount of water going into making a bottle is up to 5-6 times of what’s inside the bottle. 1 Million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute. That is about 17,000 bottles in 1 second and the number will jump to another 20% by 2021, creating an environmental crisis leading to serious climate change. About 480 billion plastic bottles were purchased globally in 2016 but only less than half of the plastic bottles produced were recycled. In the U.S., about 50 billion plastic water bottles were purchased in 2017. Though recycling rate was set for 23%, only 7% of the plastic collected was recycled and used to produce new bottles.
Hindustan Zinc has introduced Baling Machine which converts waste plastic bottles into recyclable bricks that can then be utilized in cloth manufacturing units as Yarns.
Next time, try carrying your own water bottle as much as you can. May be we all together can bring down the number from 1 million = 1 minute to few thousands. Buying water bottles is convenient but reducing their number is essential.
And if you HAVE TO BUY, please throw in a recycling bin after use so that it has chance to be recycled and reutilized.
