Implications for the Future Paper
There are many challenges in promoting, changing, and living in a cleaner world. Individuals can make differences in their own environment, their own carbon blueprint by modifying individual behaviors.
The issue
A significant area of behavior modification regarding the environment is the use of plastic bottles. The increase over the last several decades of Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles for bottled water is staggering. The reduction of the use of PET bottles will play a significant role in how an individual can change our environment.
One of the most significant challenges of plastic bottles is estimated that it requires over 700 years for plastic to decompose. Pollution caused by plastic is a world-wide problem. Researchers estimate that there is an ever increasing "garbage patch" of plastic twice the size of the state of Texas moving in the North Pacific Ocean. Humans, ecosystems, and wildlife are seriously challenged by debris from plastic.
Disposable plastic water bottles for bottled water are made out of oil which is a finite natural resource known as Polyethylene terephthalate (PET). PET bottles require energy to manufacture and transport. The amount of oil used to produce water bottles each year which equates to 17 million barrels of oil is the same amount of oil that would fuel over 1,000,000 cars for a year (Palliser, 2010). * Strategies for promoting positive environmental behavior *
The use simple strategies of reducing, reusing and recycling can play a major impact on the reduction of plastic bottles and their impact upon the environment. There are more than 50 billion bottles of water purchased globally. It is estimated that 80% of these bottles end up in landfill. It requires 17 million barrels of oil to produce bottled water containers. In the United States 1500 plastic bottles are