Stop don’t drink that…plastic bottles harm YOUR pocket, YOUR body and YOUR earth. First of all bottled water costs you way more than tap. Second plastic bottles leak chemicals into your beverages. Lastly they guzzle resources and harm the environment.
    Buying plastic bottles burns a huge hole in your pocket. According to the Earth Policy Institute bottled water can cost up to ten thousand dollars more than tap water. At ten dollars per gallon they say bottled water is more expensive than gasoline. Data from the Beverage Marketing Corporation (BMC) at the US Department of Agriculture shows that the number of gallons of bottled water consumed per American each year has doubled from 1976 to 2007.  According to a survey done here at Midwood, students spend an average of $30 per month on bottled water and other beverages.  
Think of all the money you could be spending on a new phone, or shiny laptop that’s going down the drain because you were thirsty and had to have that Poland Spring.
    On top of wasting your money, plastic bottles have been proven to leak chemicals that mimic estrogen and other hormones involved in reproduction. One of these chemicals Bisphenol A (BPA) disrupts the reproductive systems of mice permanently. Tests show that BPA can reduce sperm counts in rats and also can lead to breast cancer cell growth according to The Scientific American’s article “Plastic (not) Fantastic” 2/19/08. Another experiment explained by The Discovery News article “Plastic Water Bottles May Pose Health Hazard” 4/28/09, showed that levels of estrogen-like chemicals were lower in glass bottles and in tap water than in plastic water bottles.
     According to The Discovery News article “Plastic Water Bottles May Pose Health Hazard” of 4/28/09, Martin Wagner, the scientist working on the experiment, said, “Having done all of these experiments, I started drinking tap water.”
    Plastic water bottles are FDA approved as of right now, but the FDA agrees that the bottles do leak chemicals. They just think that it is not enough to harm humans, judging by a statement they made in The Scientific American’s article “Plastic (not) Fantastic” 2/19/08. However why ingest any chemicals if you can easily avoid it?
    Plastic bottles have a large impact on valuable resources and on our ecosystem. For every liter of water that is packaged, three liters of water are used, says the Pacific Institute on their fact sheet, “Bottled water and Energy.” We are using three times the amount of water needed when people in other countries have to walk a mile to get a bucket of water.
In addition, about three tons of carbon dioxide is emitted for every ton of plastic made. That means that in 2006 when 31 billion bottles were sold according to the BMC around 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide was released into the atmosphere.  
You know how gas prices have shot up since we are having an oil crisis? Well the plastic bottle industry uses 17 million tons of crude oil according to the Pacific Institute and that number is just going up. Those same bottles end up in the ocean, and on the beaches, and in baby pelican’s stomachs. Needless to say plastic is not good for sea animals to eat.
    If you want to save money, stop buying plastic bottles. If you want to avoid harmful chemicals, stop buying plastic bottles. If you want to stop wasting resources, stop buying plastic bottles.
 Plastic is found everywhere in our society, and it does have its uses, but it is really not needed for packaging your favorite drink. In fact we waste so many plastic bottles that a man named David deRothschild and his team were able to make a 60 feet long boat completely of plastic waste.
    In an interview with ABC News David deRothschild had this to say: “I think the hard work begins today. It’s about trying to explain this really dumb issue that we have -- we’ve got this crazy problem with plastic in our ocean that is not abating. We’ve got this addiction to single-use plastics.”
    According to the survey done of 141 Midwood students, 60 percent of you recycle which, hopefully, shows that you care about the environment. If you really want to lower impact you can buy an aluminum bottle, or if you prefer soda and buy some cans in bulk instead of buying a soda that is packaged in plastic every day. You can even fill an aluminum bottle with juice or soda if you need the sugar rush that those drinks provide. Preferably just drink the good old water that comes from your kitchen sink (it won’t poison you I promise) and bring it to school in an aluminum bottle. That is really the best for your health, the environment, and for saving money.