People have been walking on this planet for many ages, but have they recognized its condition? Although the planet we live on may seem like a safe and friendly environment, there are many other things to think about besides the positive aspects of Earth. The earth itself has been polluted in many ways, and it can be difficult to call the place we live home because of this. What's troubling is that it's us humans who are causing all the pollution because our environment doesn't do anything on its own. Some factors that have contributed to polluting our planet include water bottles, plastic bags, and non-renewable energy resources. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Water bottles are a major factor in polluting our environment. The water in the bottles may be pure, but it is not the water that causes the pollution. It's actually the bottle itself that's the problem. Many water bottles are made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), but they require a lot of energy to make. According to a journal article titled "Energy Implications of Bottled Water," energy is "embedded in the PET material itself, and additional energy is required to turn the PET into bottles." This energy is typically provided by natural gas and oil, as well as electricity from the local municipal grid” (Gleick 3). It really takes a lot of energy to produce a single bottle of water, even if the bottle doesn't look that big. In reality, they use a lot of resources and pollute the environment. Natural gas and oil are already environmental concerns, as is the amount of electricity used. The real problem is the quantity used. To produce the amount of bottled water produced each year (29 billion), it would take approximately 17 million barrels of crude oil; That's enough oil to run a million cars for a year. It takes a quarter full bottle amount of oil to create the water bottle itself. Since all these materials are wasted, it might be harder to create more energy in this world. Many people claim that tap water is purer than bottled water, but this is not always true. Drinking water may contain harmful chemicals, such as pesticides, from runoff. According to the journal article, “FDA safety and consumer protections are often less stringent than comparable EPA protections for tap water,” tests were “conducted by [various groups] to show that bottled water is not [really] cleaner. than tap water” (Stephenson 1). Bottled water appears clean compared to tap water, but the quality isn't always perfect. What makes water quality questionable is that the bottled water industry is not always required to disclose possible results to the public, unlike tap water testing. Tap water comes from the tap and is used throughout the community. The government must therefore ensure that it is tested. Bottled water is just one product people buy, and there's no real need for test results to be revealed on it because the government doesn't require it. Even though there are filters that make dirty water clean, it is impossible to get 100% H2O pure water. There might be a certain chemical that is difficult to detect and filter out. This may give the impressiontake drugs at the same time as drinking water, as harmful chemicals could be found in the water. The chemicals in bottled water might even help make the water clear to mask any peculiar effects. There are even plasticizers in water bottles that could help increase the strength of the water bottle, but could also contaminate the water with the chemicals. It may seem bad to start drinking tap water rather than bottled water, but not everyone can drink clean water. There are people in poor countries like those in Africa who cannot access clean drinking water due to the scarcity of it. They have to dig in the lake which has been polluted for many years and contains a lot of bacteria. People in these areas really want to drink cleaner water, like tap water, although there is debate that tap water is not as clean as bottled water . Some people simply don't have a holistic view of how lucky they are and don't see others who aren't as lucky as they are. This doesn't mean people should start drinking whatever water they find anywhere, but think carefully about their options. What people could do is not only save the environment, but they can also save themselves. When people finish drinking the water bottles, they are thrown away. Most of these bottles are not recycled and many end up on the street. This process is called littering and it leads to more waste. The more waste we have in our environment, the more pollution created. There is already enough waste in this world, and adding water bottles to the waste already lying around in the environment is not the best idea. These water bottles also take a long time to decompose, and no water bottles have broken down yet. It may take several centuries, or even a millennium, for the water bottle to finally decompose. Since water bottles take a long time to decompose, it really helps if a water bottle is recycled. The more water bottles are recycled, the more resources are saved, and the more energy is also saved. Even just one bottle of water could make a huge difference, as it requires a lot of oil to make water bottles. Plastic bags are another big contributor to pollution. People like to use them to store their groceries after purchasing them. They are not really recyclable and should be thrown into the landfill with the rest of the waste group. This is really bad because they don't biodegrade, but photodegrade. Even after so many years, plastic bags are still around. They are simply broken down into smaller pieces, which could contaminate soil and waterways. Plastic bags are already made from recycled materials, so recycling them can't really help solve a problem. Burning plastic bags won't really help either, as more air pollution will be released into our environment and toxic fumes may result. Once there is more pollution in our environment, it can stay there for a while. It doesn't magically disappear, but will disappear over time if we clean it or eliminate the threats. If there is more pollution in our environment, it will continue to increase if nothing is done about it. Humans can actually take action to stop using plastic bags and start using other alternatives, like bringing their own bag to thestore when they buy something. In some stores it might be possible to choose between paper and plastic. It may seem obvious to choose the paper bag over the plastic bag, but it's really not that obvious. Plastic bags cause many problems in our environment, but paper bags cause them too. They are of course made of paper, and paper comes from trees. In fact, several million trees are cut down each year for the production of paper bags. This is bad because it leads to deforestation, and there will be less oxygen in our environment due to there being fewer trees in the environment. Paper bags are also more difficult to produce than plastic bags because they require significantly more energy to produce, which also leads to pollution. Paper bags can even be recycled more easily than plastic bags because they are biodegradable, but they cannot decompose in landfills due to the lack of elements such as water and sunlight. Although paper bags may seem like a better alternative to plastic bags, they are not the perfect solution as they still cause problems. That's why people should start bringing their own reusable bags to stores. More resources will be saved and fewer materials will be wasted. One possible solution is to ban the use of plastic bags. According to the magazine “Plastic Bags – Prolific Problems”, plastic bags are “taxed in Ireland and banned in Bangladesh. [They cause] waste problems, [so] the Irish government [started] charging shoppers a tax of €0.15 on each bag used. [In Bangladesh], drainage blockages caused by rebel bags contributed to flooding, [so] Bangladesh banned them from its capital” (Spivey A208). Basically, other countries are trying to help ban the use of plastic bags. Governments in some countries may outright ban the bag if they are strict enough, or they may help tax bag users if they are not as strict. Some stores in the United States are also encouraging people to bring their own reusable bags to receive a discount to support the cause of not using plastic bags. Other stores may require you to bring your own bag, otherwise you will have to pay for a plastic bag at the store. Stores that want you to bring reusable bags are only a limited percentage, and not really a universal percentage. Switching from plastic bags to reusable bags may seem unfair to some people due to the convenience of plastic bags, but it may ultimately be truly necessary. Not only will the environment itself be saved from the pollution resulting from the production of these bags, but the lives of animals will also be saved. Plastic bags end up in the ocean, where many living creatures are found. According to the journal “The Plastic Baggers: An Evaluation of a Boutique Cause in Targeted Environmentalism,” the marine environment is greatly affected because “plastic bags [kill] at least 100,000 birds, whales, seals and turtles each year. Once an animal is killed by plastic bags, its body decomposes and the plastic is released into the environment where it can kill again” (Wilks 12). Plastic bags actually harm all kinds of wildlife and marine life and clog waterways. Basically, plastic bag is like a reusable weapon because the same bag can kill many lives. What is essentially happening is that sea creatureswill see the plastic bag and think it is food. They start eating the plastic bag, then their digestive tract becomes blocked. Marine animals will die because their intestines become blocked. Marine life doesn't really know the difference between what is food and what isn't, so keeping the ocean clean will only make it fair for them. Some sea creatures are also endangered and will eventually disappear if nothing is done about them. plastic bags. The extinction of some sea creatures will be a problem that will be caused by humans, because it is not the environment that does anything, but humans themselves. It's as if our inventions can have double swords, because they can seem like a good concept, but have various consequences along the way. We may also be affected as the endangerment of marine life will affect fishermen due to shortages occurring in certain types of fish. With some shortage of certain fish, this will affect the entire food chain. This can also include humans, since we are the ones eating the fish. The economy is also affected, as less money will also go out due to the shortages, which could lead to a shortage. The price of certain types of fish could be significantly increased because it would become difficult to find that type of fish. All fish lovers should think twice before throwing away their plastic bags as they would also be affected. Non-renewable energy is one of the largest sources of pollution as it is used in daily life through various applications. Some of the energy resources we use are oil, coal, natural gas and nuclear energy. The problem is not only that they are negatively impacting our environment, but we are depleting them at an exponential rate. According to the journal article titled “Understanding the Behavior of Non-Renewable Energy Supply,” the process of supplying “non-renewable resources in general, and oil and natural gas in particular, is very complex and difficult to be described in a simple theory. Oil and gas production involves numerous stages in the process of resource development and extraction, with complex dynamic interrelationships operating both within and between stages of the process” (Bohi 927). Producing non-renewable energy resources is already difficult, and wasting them will result in wasted production labor. This hurts us in two ways, because we spend a lot of effort on creating non-renewable energy resources instead of converting them to renewable energy resources, and we use them while at the same time polluting the environment. The solution to non-renewable energy resources are alternative energy resources. Although finding an alternative energy resource is a difficult task, it is not impossible. Even companies such as automobile manufacturers are beginning to find ways to replace a non-renewable resource like oil. They developed these biofuels created from dead biological materials. This is good because it reduces greenhouse gases better than other resources like gas and ethanol. Biofuel is even better for the car because not only does it burn cleaner, but it also provides better lubrication. Gas prices are also high due to oil scarcity, so switching to an alternative could also help the economy. It should be noted that America is already slowly converting to resources.