I am in the process of learning how to recycle. This first post will be about water bottles! Everyone is on this kick of drinking out of water bottles all the time. I have even heard comments from people that they can’t drink water from the tap at all. In Georgia our tap water is very good. I love the way it tastes, so I don’t mind drinking it at all. Of course, if you live in an area with bad water, you may think bottled water is your only option. This is not true! Zero water pitches are great alternatives to bottled water, and there is nothing to recycle! You get the pitcher, fill it with your tap water and it removes 99 percent of the bad stuff.
If you still prefer bottled water, then recycling them is a great way to keep them out of the landfills! To do this correctly, then follow these basic guidelines.
- Remove the cap, most recycling companies cant recycle the plastic bottle if the cap is still on. The cap is made from a different plastic than the bottle, so to prevent contamination, just remove the cap.
- Remove the plastic label is your bottled water has one.
- Put the empty bottle in the recycle bin.
Check with your local recycle center to find out what number plastic the accept. Usually it’s 1 or 2.
Have fun recycling your water bottles! for every ton of plastic recycled, 1 barrel of oil is saved! Here are some fun facts I
1.) Only 1 in 5 plastic bottles are recycled
2.) Americans consume over 8.6 billion gallons of bottled water
3.) Most tap water is more heavily tested and regulated than bottled water
4.) Plastic water bottles can take between 400 and 1,000 years to decompose
5.) It requires 3 times the amount of water to produce a plastic bottle than it does to fill it
6.) Bottled water costs over 1,000+ times more than tap water
7.) Last year, the average American used 167 water bottles, but only recycled 38
8.) In many taste tests, tap water was preferred over bottled water
9.) The NRDC conducted a comprehensive four-year scientific study of 1,000 brands of bottled water. The results showed that one third of the bottled waters violated their own industry standards for water quality
10.) It takes 17 million barrels of oil to produce plastic bottles yearly. This could fuel 1 million cars for a year
about water bottles.