Our View
Issue date: 11/8/07 Section: Opinions
But if we can pay for the packaging and the purification and we find it easier to grab icy Aquafinas from our fridges rather than to refill cups with lukewarm water that tastes of minerals, why shouldn't we?
There are two reasons. In the short-term, can we really afford to feed - or rather, quench - this habit? What are we giving up in order to pay multinational corporations $9.2 billion per year for something we can get virtually for free? The average college graduate carries $19,000 in debts. If you forgo buying a bottle of Bulldogua every day during your time at Truman, you'd save more than $2,000.
More importantly, in the long run, millions of tons of polyethylene terephthalate, an oil-derived plastic, are used every year to create all those disposable water bottles, and less than a quarter of the bottles are recycled. The exponentially growing use of natural resources such as oil is contributing to the weather patterns that intensify the droughts in places like Kenya, where some citizens already do not have consistent access to potable and portable water.
So let's recycle our one-time-use water bottles, invest in some more durable containers and rediscover our faucets.
Otherwise, we might never get to face those hypothetical toll bridges - there won't be anything running underneath them.
There are two reasons. In the short-term, can we really afford to feed - or rather, quench - this habit? What are we giving up in order to pay multinational corporations $9.2 billion per year for something we can get virtually for free? The average college graduate carries $19,000 in debts. If you forgo buying a bottle of Bulldogua every day during your time at Truman, you'd save more than $2,000.
More importantly, in the long run, millions of tons of polyethylene terephthalate, an oil-derived plastic, are used every year to create all those disposable water bottles, and less than a quarter of the bottles are recycled. The exponentially growing use of natural resources such as oil is contributing to the weather patterns that intensify the droughts in places like Kenya, where some citizens already do not have consistent access to potable and portable water.
So let's recycle our one-time-use water bottles, invest in some more durable containers and rediscover our faucets.
Otherwise, we might never get to face those hypothetical toll bridges - there won't be anything running underneath them.
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