1st Negative Environmental Impact
With my behavior being water bottle consumption, the first negative impact is the waste caused by water bottle usage. With all the water bottles being used, there is a lot of waste being accumulated by the water bottles and according to Doug Gunzelmann, “The average American consumes 167 bottles of water a year” (Gunzelmann). With all these bottles being used and thrown away, landfills are getting more and more overwhelmed with these plastic bottles. After researching The Water Project’s website they say that, “U.S. landfills are overflowing with 2 million tons of discarded water bottles alone” (The Water Project). If plastic bottles continue to be consumed and not recycled, we will be flooded in water bottles, and eventually may not know where to dispose because there may not be room one day. With all the waste, everyone may be living near a landfill one day.
2nd Negative Environmental Impact With the amount of bottles being consumed I can understand why there are floating garbage dumps in the middle of ocean like The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is why second negative impact is plastic polluting the ocean. After understanding the amount of bottles we consume per year, I was not shocked to hear Brian Rooney saying that, “There is a floating garbage dump about the size of Africa created by Pacific currents now carrying refuse from North America, Asia and the islands, concentrating it into a swirl of flotsam estimated to contain 3.5 million tons of junk, 80 percent of which is plastic” (Rooney). The pollution in the oceans is caused by garbage/plastic bottles finding their way into waterways and the currents moving it to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Many people have been throwing garbage in the waterways and as Mr. Conley says in his paper, “The rest of the debris we find in our waterways comes from land-based sources, including people who litter, landfills, and storm drains” (Conley). If we as a society can cut back on the waste by recycling and reusing bottles, we can cut back on the waste that finds its way into our waterways. With this pollution to our oceans, we can lead into the final negative impact, which is the effect the pollution has on ocean ecosystems.
3rd Negative Environmental Impact The amount of plastic accumulating in the ocean is extremely high. With all the waste, the ocean life has been deeply affected, which is why the third negative impact is water pollution effecting ecosystems in the ocean. According to Clean Water Action, “In the ocean, plastic debris injures and kills fish, seabirds, and marine mammals. Marine plastic pollution has impacted at least 267 species worldwide, including 86% of all sea turtle species, 44% of all seabird species and 43% of all marine mammal species. The impacts include fatalities as a result of ingestion, starvation, suffocation, infection, drowning, and entanglement” (Moore). With all the