Landfills

 **Water Bottles in Landfills ** **Chapin D., K.C. K., Matt B., and Shelby E. **



Everyone drinks water, because we need water to live. Since the clever but environmentally devastating invention of the plastic water bottles, we have been drinking bottles, then throwing them away. Plastic bottles take 700 years before they //begin // to decompose in a landfill. In 2006, Americans drank about 167 bottles of water each but only recycled an average of 23 percent. That leaves 38 billion water bottles in landfills. We need to change, to stop drinking out of plastic water bottles and buy reusable ones, or recycle. The landfills are growing and it only going to get worse.
 * Introduction **

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 Modern landfills are well-engineered facilities that are located, designed, operated, and monitored to ensure compliance with federal regulations. Although many new landfills collect potentially harmful landfill gas emissions and convert the gas into energy, we the people, need to take the responsibility to change our ways and recycle anything and everything that can be. In the United States, about 30 billion water bottles are sold each year, and 80% of them end up in landfills. Water bottles are very useful, but instead of getting a Poland Springs, or Dasani, why is it that people can not use a Nalgene or another type of water bottle that can be washed and used over and over for many years. Bottles, such as the ones in the picture above, are used maybe twice, but most people throw them away after only one use. This habit needs to be changed because at the rate we are going landfills will take over all the space we currently have for wildlife. If in fact it did get to be this bad there would be nothing we could do, we need to take action now and not keep saying "oh I'll just start recycling tomorrow", because as we know when we say things like that they never become a true statement.
 * Landfill- ** **1. ** A method of solid waste disposal in which refuse is buried between layers of dirt so as to fill in or reclaim low-lying ground. **2. ** A site used for or reclaimed by such disposal . =====

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 * Byproduct of Landfills ** =====

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A byproduct is something produced in the making of something else or is a secondary result. When water bottles are put into landfills they can take up to 1,000 years to disintegrate. As they are disintegrating they release toxic additives into the the ground and possible into a water supply. One of the toxic additives that the bottles leak are phthalates. Phthalates (pronounced THAL-ates) are organic chemicals produced from oil and are the most commonly used plasticisers in the world. They are a family of chemical substances that have been in use for about 50 years, primarily to make polyvinyl chloride (PVC) soft and flexible.If these toxic additives get into the ground water, they could run into a towns water supply. If this happens then the towns water supply will then become toxic to drink. Also since plastic water bottles take so long to disintegrate they may harm our future water supply. ===== <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #00b050; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'">

<span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,0,216)"> <span style="COLOR: #003399; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'">This pie chart shows how many bottles these specific places are wasting. These numbers are way to high and need to come down immediately. If there were operable recycling units at these places (excluding the waste from the landfill on the chart) it could cut down wasted water bottles by 46,805,774.

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 * <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #008e40; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">Negative Effects of Water Bottles in Landfills **<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #00b050; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #00b050; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">
 * <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">According to a 2001 report of the World Wide Fund for Nature, about 1.5 million tons of plastic are wasted in the bottling of 89 billion liters of water each year. ** <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #00b050; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica">There are a lot of plastic bottles produced every year and the energy required to manufacture and transport these bottles to market severely drains limited fossil fuels. Bottled water companies, due to their unregulated use of valuable resources and their production of billions of plastic bottles have presented a huge impact of the environment.

**<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #008e40; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">California, for example. **<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #00b050; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #00b050; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica">More than 1 billion water bottles are winding up in the trash in California each year. That makes up nearly 3 million empty water bottles going to the trash EVERY day and an estimated $26 million in unclaimed California Refund Value (CRV) deposits annually. If recycled, the raw materials from those bottles could be used to make 74 million square feet of carpet, 74 million extra large T-shirts or 16 million sweaters, among other things. Instead of recycling they are filling up landfills rapidly.

**<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #008e40; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">Air pollution **<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #00b050; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #00b050; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica">The water bottles not thrown away are usually incinerated or recycled. If it is incinerated then it produces green house gases. These fumes not only pose health risks, they create “green house gases” that attack the ozone layer.

<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #00b050; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"> **<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #008e40; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">Oil **<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #00b050; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica"> It takes 1.5 million barrels of oil -- enough to fuel 100,000 cars for a year -- to make the plastic bottles to meet Americans' demand for bottled water, according to the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., environmental think tank.

**<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #008e40; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">PET **<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #00b050; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #00b050; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica">The kind of plastic most used for water bottles -- polyethylene terephthalate, or PET -- is recyclable. But consumers recycle just one of every five bottles they drink, with the rest ending up in landfills. Since we cannot reuse the bottles because of the health risks, we must recycle. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #00b050; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"> **<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #008e40; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">Cost of Landfills **<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #00b050; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"> The cost of landfills range from 8$ to 70$ per ton, and although that does not seem like a lot, adds up quickly. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #008e40; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"> Landfills can be almost any where but there are some requirements that may need to be added to the land space. Right here in Beverly we have some landfills that look like a normal wide open area, but underneath all of that grass there are tons and tons of trash.
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">Where are Landfills Located ** <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #00b050; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">

**<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #008e40; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">What you can do **<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #00b050; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"> Buy and recycle, or don’t buy at all. Poland Spring is a leader in reducing its environmental impact through responsible production of most of its own bottles. Their eco- bottle is 100% recyclable. Make sure whatever you buy is recyclable. Most water bottles are not reusable because of the chemicals and bacteria held in the water bottles even after you use them, so recycling is the only thing to prevent the filling of landfills dedicated to plastic bottles.If your local gas station or convenience mart doesn’t offer a recycling bin, ask them to put one in. If there’s not a recycling program at work, start one up. Most important, hold on to that container until you can recycle it.” Pick a domestic brand over one that was shipped halfway across the globe, giving the environment a break by using less fuel to ship it -- and then recycle the bottle. <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"> **<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #ff0066; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">Need Help? **<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #ff0066; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">If you would like to recycle but don’t have any options in your town, contact your city council for information. If you need more help, you can contact your water bottle, your local grocery store, or the EPA. Put your best effort forth to recycle and it will be worth it. ** <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #ff0066; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'">

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**Citations**
http://www.progressivekid.com/shop/BottledWaterTrouble.aspx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottled_water#Health_impact http://www.zerowasteamerica.org/Images/4-8.gif http://herbarium.usu.edu/fungi/FunFacts/Landfilldone.jpg http://ezinearticles.com/?10-Billion-Plastic-Bottles-In-Landfills---Plus-Tips-To-Conserve-Water&id=1163703 http://www.refillnotlandfill.org/ http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0218-05.htm http://www.ejnet.org/landfills/ [|www.bottlesandcans.com] http://www.consrv.ca.gov/index/news/2003%20News%20Releases/Pages/NR2003-13_Water_Bottle_Crisis.aspx http://www.phthalates.com/index.asp?page=4 http://www.consrv.ca.gov/index/news/2003%20News%20Releases/Pages/NR2003-13_Water_Bottle_Crisis.aspx http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/health/348952,CST-NWS-eatwater19.article http://earth911.com/plastic/plastic-bottle-recycling-facts/ <span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,0,216)"> <span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,0,216)"> <span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(59,247,216)"> <span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,0,216)"> <span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,0,216)"> <span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,0,216)"> <span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,0,126)">