Steph MangoldWalking through campus, it is commonplace to see one with either a cell phone or a bottle of water in his or her hand. Bottled water is fashionable, but the disposal of the plastic carcass is becoming a bigger and bigger problem nationwide.
Michelle Ward, a junior psychology and social work major, is a self-professed “bottled water drinker.” “I throw my empty bottles in the trash,” she said.
The Associated Press reported that bottled water is expected to be the most consumed beverage, surpassing soda and alcoholic beverages, by 2005.
“I drink about a case [24 bottles] a week,” Krista Fittapoldi, a junior education major, said. Fittapoldi’s empty water bottles are thrown out with the beer cans and pizza crusts.
California is widely considered to have the best recycling program in the world, according to CBS.
About 16 percent of California’s water bottles are recycled, leaving more than three million in trashcans bound for state landfills.
The plastic used to make water bottles does not break down over time. The only way to get rid of it is to burn it, according to the Associated Press, but burning plastic creates gases that add to the hole in the ozone layer.
“Recycling is the way to go,” Sheryl Fuller-Espie, chair of the biology department, said. Fuller-Espie advocates the recycling of all
Posted to the web by Steph Mangold
