Plastic Bottles are Wasteful

Why You Should Stop Using Plastic Water Bottles

Plastic water bottles have generated immense amounts of waste in the ocean. Between 5.3 million and fourteen million tons of plastics, much of it being plastic water bottles, end up in the ocean from coastal regions yearly . This doesn’t account for the plastic that has been recycled properly, in a dump, or littering the land. It is easy to ignore how much plastic has been accumulating. However, the expanse of plastic that is in the ocean directly affects our society. Not only is plastic building up in our oceans, but it is also being broken down into minuscule-pieces called “microplastics”. While plastic degradation seems beneficial to the environment, it is not actually helpful. Animals living in the ocean absorb the microplastic in their bodies, and it accumulates in their muscles, fat, and tissue. This decreases the lifespan of marine animals dramatically. The preservation of marine animals is critical for sustaining our environment and also contributes to large part of our diet. Consequently, when fish are caught by fishermen and introduced into our diet, the microplastics are transferred from the fishes’ bodies to our bodies when we eat seafood.