Since science has proven that it takes 1000's of years for those little plasic water bottles to break down....

Question

Why in the heck are they even legal to manufacture? I don't really mean legal, I just want to know why Everything is packaged in them? In 20 years are we all going to be up to our eyeballs or lower in them? Just a thought, does anyone care?

Answer 1

True that they will take time, but that 1000 years is probably beyond proof.  There's already a use for them, they're recycled into the composite plastic that's now used in place of wood for decks and porches.  So we just have to build more decks.  The bad news is that it's a one-time deal; the decks can't be recycled, at least we haven't found a way yet, but we will.  Just like the tires that are ground up and used to fill the gaps between strands of artificial turf.  Just think, you can score the winning run while sliding into the carcass of an old bus tire

Footnote, the variety of plastic used to manufacture the bottles, PET, was invented by the son of artist Andrew Wyeth while working for Dupont.  Andy always looked down on him as the black sheep of the family for not pursuing a career in art.  The question becomes: is technological innovation an art in itself?  (he asks as he chugs from one of those bottles)

Answer 2

They're legal to manufacture, because what else are you going to do?  It's not just water that's in those little plastic bottles-- people tend to focus on that and not the millions of other products that have been in plastic for decades.

What about ketchup bottles?  Baby-diaper-wipe-boxes?  Windex spray bottles?  Everything in this world is going plastic because it's affordable.  Not only does glass take a lot of energy to melt down and shape, it's very costly to transport as it is much heavier than plastic.

It is widely understood that plastic bottles are filling up our landfills.  Rather than passing a law to stop manufacturing of them and send our economy into even MORE of a whirlwind-- there's laws regarding redemption charges.  It's all about encouraging people to recycle instead of just throw away the bottle.  

If we ALL recycled everything, we'd have much less for environmental problems.  Since outlawing plastic will never happen, we should all focus our time and energy on working with what we've already got-- a recycling program.  Some towns don't even have them, and some are quite inadequate.  People should really be promoting recycling rather than trying to come up with unrealistic ways to replace plastic.

Answer 3

We care but what can we do.

The FDA controls some of these issues. It says that "nitrates" are safe for making food last longer. It allows or disallows use of certain foods and ingredients to be used by being lobbied by various manufactures. Why do we put Formaldehyde into Milk, food products, wood products and all sorts of things that we expose ourselves to everyday.

Watch the movie - Idiocracy - its a perfect example of what our world is becoming.

Answer 4

They are legal because they are cheap. They are safer in the sense that when they break, they don't leave glass shards everywhere. They are far lighter to transport. Transparent packaging is more appealing to the eye. But plastics come with a price as you know.

They are dervied from oil. Big oil has a *huge* stake in leaving things the way they are. We can switch to using hybrid cars, using wood, metal, natural cloth, solar enengy, etc. whenever possible, but as a consumer those things are more expensive; so is anything built-to-last.

We don't need science to know that they take forever to break down, just look on the side of the freeway.

But here is some hope for you: plastic bags are going by the wayside.