Apathy Amongst Bottles

Many students, who despite knowing the consequences plastics have on the environment, continue to use plastic water bottles daily at a rate which continues to increase.

Plastic water bottles are used everyday because they are cheap, easy to obtain, and easy to dispose of. By buying plastic bottles, people do not need to worry about losing their bottles or breaking them, because they can easily buy another. They do not need to worry about forgetting their water bottles at school either.

We asked the vendors at the canteen on the amount of plastic water bottles sold everyday on average. We also counted the number of plastic bottles left behind on the canteen tables after dismissal.

“On average, we sell around two boxes of Aqua bottles everyday. One box contains 24 of them,” claims Dede, who has been a canteen vendor at Springfield for 5 years.

This number is not to mention all the other drinks that are also packaged in plastic bottles. As for the number of plastic bottles left behind on the canteen tables after dismissal, there was an average of 6 plastic bottles left everyday. Now imagine the number of plastic bottles that were thrown away already, or
are still scattered throughout the school.

Plastic waste is non-biodegradable. This means that they cannot be decomposed by bacteria or other living organisms, which means that they are going to stay on our planet for hundreds of years.

Plastics become a threat to our environment when they make their way into our groundwater and oceans. Toxic chemicals from plastics can leak into the groundwater and into rivers and lakes. These toxic chemicals poison the water, and sometimes kill the wildlife that depend on the water there. Furthermore, it is not only toxic chemicals that can enter these bodies of water. Big pieces of plastic waste flow out into the ocean daily, and are mistaken for food by the animals there.

The dangers of plastics are not an uncommon topic nowadays. Most students at school know, or have heard, of the effects plastics have on the environment. There are many advertisements and videos on ‘saving the planet’, as well as many people spreading awareness on various social media platforms. The problem is not the lack of awareness on this issue, but rather when people think they will not make a difference, or when they simply do not care.

“The amount of plastic bottles I use daily would only affect a small portion of the environment anyway. There are thousands of other people out there who use plastic bottles too,” remarked Tamara, a grade 11 student.

If every student at school has this similar mindset, the number of plastic bottles used will continue to exponentially increase. Even though you are just one person, your ‘small’ decision to not use plastic bottles will make a change. A small change can be reducing the number of sweet drinks you consume. Not only will you be doing the environment a favour, but you will be doing your body a favour as well. And instead of using plastic bottles everyday,
why not bring a reusable water bottle when you are able to? All of these small changes are not useless, but instead they definitely help in creating a better environment.