Bryana Malloy
ENGL 102-045
Response to Article
24 January 2012
Purer
Life, Bottle Free
In
a world that is fast-paced and rapidly moving towards the future, there are
many things that we fail to look upon. I myself am so wrapped up with classes,
homework, family, and friends that I do not stop to think about the negative
effects I am putting on the environment. After reading “Bad To The Last Drop”
by Tom Standage, I have realized how much bottled water can cause damage to our
environment.
Almost
every day I wake up, shower, and usually rush out the door so I am not late for
my classes. I like to have a drink with me during classes, and my drink of
choice is water. Because I am so rushed in the morning, it is way more
convenient to grab a Poland Springs water bottle and throw it in my bag. On top
of convenience, I personally think that bottled water tastes way better than
tap water, which is treated and filled with iron and chemicals. But after
reading the article by Tom, I agree that bottled water now does have “an
unacceptably bitter taste” (26).
The
only issue I was ever aware of that concerned bottled water was that the
plastic bottles were not being recycled properly. Now, I know that the issue of
bottled water goes way further than recycling. Bottled water is the second most
popular drink in America (24), yet it’s costs are more than gasoline and tap
water. I knew that tap water contained chemicals, but I never stopped to think
about the chemicals that were in bottled water. Maybe it is the pure taste of
bottled water that made me oblivious to what is put into the water and what
harmful effects the plastic produces.
After
reading about what we could do with the amount of money we spend on bottled
water, I was in awe. The bottled water industry is a “$46 billion industry”(24).
It only would take $1.7 billion to provide everyone on earth with clean water
and an extra $9.3 billion to improve sanitation (25). That’s not even half of
the money that we spend on bottled water yearly. If we put our money towards
keeping the water clean instead of spending it on bottled water, imagine the
difference we could make in the lives of those that are less fortunate.
It
seems foolish now to waste our money on water that is freely available to us
right in our homes. Considering the fact that bottled water is the second most popular beverage, it
can’t be as great as we think it is. There are many different brands of bottled
water, and they are only competing for one thing: our money. The more
“eco-friendly” and pure the water tastes, the more profit they make. These
companies are tricking us into thinking that bottled water is the cleanest,
freshest water we can drink, but it’s just a gimmick to get us buying their
product. Now that I have become more knowledgeable about this issue, I am never
going to buy bottled water again. And in doing so, I am going to encourage and
inform others to follow the same path that will lead to a purer life,
especially for those around the world who don’t have a say.
Works Cited
Standage, Tom. “Bad To The Last Drop.” Practical
Argument: A Text and Anthology.
Ed.
Kirszner, Laurie G., and Stephen R. Mandell. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's,
2011. 24-26. Print.
