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Water Bottle Fact Pages

The document outlines the life cycle of a plastic water bottle from extraction of oil to disposal. It notes that bottles go through many steps of production, transportation, filling, and distribution before being purchased. Most plastic bottles eventually end up in landfills due to low recycling rates, though some are recycled into new plastic products. The process of creating single-use plastic water bottles uses significant natural resources and fossil fuels.

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LindaHC
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224 views2 pages

Water Bottle Fact Pages

The document outlines the life cycle of a plastic water bottle from extraction of oil to disposal. It notes that bottles go through many steps of production, transportation, filling, and distribution before being purchased. Most plastic bottles eventually end up in landfills due to low recycling rates, though some are recycled into new plastic products. The process of creating single-use plastic water bottles uses significant natural resources and fossil fuels.

Uploaded by

LindaHC
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Life Cycle of a Plastic Bottle

The average American consumes 167 bottles of water each year. There are many steps involved in making a bottle
of water and throughout the process many natural resources are used. Make a note of how many times the bottle is
transported throughout the process and remember that transportation also uses gasoline and releases a lot of car-
bon dioxide into the air which contributes to air pollution.

First, the oil is extracted Then the oil is cleaned at At a plastics factory the oil is
from the earth the refinery transformed into plastic pellets
then bottle pre-forms.

The bottles are ready for you so The bottles are brought to the The pre-forms are
they are transported to the store. bottling plant where they are heated and shaped into
filled with water. bottles.

Most of the plastic bottles are thrown in the trash and end up in landfills.
Some are recycled and brought to a factory that turns them into other items
like carpet, fleece and other plastic items. Eventually, those items are dis-
posed of in the trash and also end up in the landfill.
You purchase
the bottle of
water and bring
it to your
house.
Water Bottle Facts: Did you know...?

Americans buy an esti-


mated 29.8 billion
plastic water bottles
every year.

On average, each
American consumes
167 bottles of water a

80% of our bottles


are not recycled – Each year 17 million
they end up in the barrels of oil are
landfill or are incin- used to make the
erated with other plastic for the bottles
regular trash. – that’s enough to
fuel 1 million cars for
a year!

More than 2.5


million tons of
Each year 16.4 bil- carbon dioxide (a
lion gallons of water greenhouse gas)
are used to make are released in the All plastic that is
the plastic for the production of plas- used for food and
bottles – that’s not tic bottles. drink is brand new
including the water plastic – for health
used to fill the bot- reasons we cannot
tles! use recycled plastic.

At least
40% of
bottled YOU can
water help by
comes from using reus-
able water

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