Bottled Water Should Not Be Banned Persuasive Essay Example

Water bottles, a popular bottled beverage, have been a growing trend since 2010. Around 42.6 billion bottles are sold every year. In 2013, Concord, Massachusetts banned the use of plastic water bottles because of environmental concerns leaving everyone with the question: should water bottles be banned? The answer is simple. Bottled water should not be banned because it eliminates a healthy option, it is crucial to have in everyone’s emergency supply, and a ban on water bottles would not necessarily reduce waste. 

Removing water bottles would take away a healthy option to drink. In 2017, the National Park service, who placed a water bottle ban in their parks, revoked the ban due to much criticism from guests. “The ban removed the healthiest beverage choice at a variety of parks while leaving sugary drinks available at concessions” (Barnum). This explains that the water bottle ban took away water and left unhealthy drinks for the guests. This shows that water bottles should not be banned because people need a healthy option to drink. The ban was ineffective because it left the park guests without any water and offered sugary drinks in plastic bottles instead. When the point of view of the guests is considered, it is realized that they may feel dehydrated and may want water to refresh themselves. It might be frustrating to discover there is no water but only sugary drinks that will not satisfy their thirst as well as water would have. If there is no water bottle ban, then people will not have to worry about not having any water and places and places would get less criticism from the guests.

Bottled water should be a staple in all emergency water supply kits. At procon.org, it says “Between Dec. 2016, and Mar. 2018, residents of St. Joseph, LA, relied on state-issued bottled water as a replacement for tap water after high levels of lead were found in their system” (Markoff). This quote means that bottled water was used when their tap water, that got contaminated with lead, became too dangerous to drink. This proves that bottled water could be necessary in an emergency. What most people see are the effects the plastic has on the environment. What is not usually recognized is that bottled water can be very useful in an emergency, when water is needed. This can be applied by thinking about if the Thatcher community was to lose all of their tap water like the residents of St. Joseph did. It would then become essential to use plastic water bottles for a source of water.

It is true that banning water bottles may reduce waste. At 5gyres.org, it says “Less than 30% of all plastic water bottles are recycled. Roughly seven out of every 10 bottles are trashed. And from the landfill, many plastic water bottles end up in the ocean” (Box). This means that not many plastic bottles get recycled and instead get thrown to the ocean. Though this is true, other bottled beverages are more abundant in landfills and are even worse for the environment. Procon.org says “Plastic water bottles contain much less polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic than soft drink bottles that require a thicker plastic container due to the drinks’ carbonation- 9.89 grams of PET v. 23.9 grams for a 16.9 oz bottle… plastic water bottles make up 3.3% of all drink packaging in US landfills, which is less than both plastic carbonated soft drink containers (13.3%) and aluminum cans (7.9%)” (Markoff). Plastic water bottles are much better for the environment than other plastic beverage bottles. Banning plastic water bottles would be unproductive. There would still be a large amount of plastic still going in landfills and oceans. It would be a better choice to ban plastic carbonated drinks instead of water bottles. 

Bottled water should not be banned; it would take away a healthy option to drink, it is needed in all emergency supply kits, and a ban on water bottles wouldn’t reduce much waste. Water bottles cut an innumerable amount of calories from diets, they are beneficial during an emergency when you can not access tap water and more waste comes from other beverage packages, not water. Stop the water bottle ban from happening to you for all of these reasons.