Reusing Plastic Bottles Can Pose Serious Health Hazards

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The three R's - reduce, reuse and recycle - all help to cut down on the amount of waste we throw away. They conserve natural resources, landfill space and energy. Plus, the three R's save land and money communities must use to dispose of waste in landfills. Every week we recycle our paper and plastics in order to reduce waste material. Many of use also reuse certain items over and over again – items such as plastic bags, paper, and water bottles. However, not many people realize that reusing some items without proper care can be hazardous to their health. An experiment with reused water bottles shows that bacteria will build up over time in bottles that are not frequently washed. This buildup of bacteria can be relatively harmless or, if enough bacteria is present, can impact a person’s health. If someone were to be in space looking down at Earth, they would see a world dominated by water. Water is the most unique and important resource on our planet and yet it is also the resource most taken for granted. While we live in a world that is over half water, very little of that water is safe for human consumption. While fresh water is spread throughout the world, some countries risk their health by drinking toxic water full of bacteria and hazardous chemicals. In America, our fresh water supplies are treated in order to kill any bacteria or other chemical hazards in the water. However, without realizing it, Americans drink water filled with bacteria all the time. By drinking from reused water bottles, people are consuming more bacteria-filled water. Bacteria in itself is not always bad, in fact bacteria plays an important role to our global ecosystem, breaking down materials to that may be harmful for earth. Surprisingly,... ... middle of paper ... ...mpared to a decade ago, humans have become more aware of the importance of water and other natural resource and have become less incline to waste them and will hopefully continue to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Works Cited • Shah, Anup. “Water and Development.” Global Issues, Updated: 06 Jun. 2010. Accessed: 17 Feb. 2011. • B. R. Speer & Ben Waggoner. “Bacteria: Life History and Ecology.” University of California at Berkeley. 17 February 2011 • Favor, Lesli J. Bacteria: Germs! The library of disease causing organisms. New York: Rosen Publishing Group, 2003. • Driessen, Suzanne. “Water Bottle Safety.” Food Safety, University of Minnesota, 2005. 17 February 2011

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