One million every minute, of every hour, of every day, of every year: right now that’s how many single-use plastic bottles are sold around the world, usually containing just water or soft drinks.
‘The shores are absolutely covered with bottles’ How do plastic bottles end up in the sea?
They become brittle, eventually break into smaller pieces and become magnets for other pollutants before being mistakenly eaten by marine life, thus entering the food chain.
In August last year, Britain’s Plymouth University reported that plastic was discovered inside a third of the fish caught in the United Kingdom – including shellfish, cod and haddock.
“And when I’m diving, they’re always present in the water, too.
I end up collecting them, and once filled seven large bags with nothing but plastic bottles during a dive off the coast of Dibba.
And the drinks companies like consumers to see the contents, so there’s little incentive for them to change their ways.
China is currently the world’s leading consumer of bottled drinks, with increasing urbanisation, concerns about tap-water quality and groundwater contamination driving the demand.
The irony here is that plastic bottles themselves are poisoning the groundwater people are so afraid of drinking – a classic example of the snake eating itself.
But while we’re probably not in need of such a craft, we could install water filters in our homes so that tap water would be perfectly palatable.

Frustrated by discolored drinking water pouring from their taps, four Compton residents filed a class-action lawsuit late Monday against their water provider, Sativa Los Angeles County Water District.
The lawsuit, filed at Los Angeles County Superior Court, accuses Sativa of failing to provide quality drinking water, misappropriating taxpayer dollars and causing a financial burden on its low-income customers in Compton and Willowbrook.
It has fended off two previous dissolution attempts by L.A. County’s Local Agency Formation Commission — the state-appointed body charged with monitoring special districts.
The plaintiffs include four mothers who said they are affected by water problems dating as far back as five years.
“It’s a wake-up call for everybody, even for those who [oversee] the district,” said Martha Barajas, one of the plaintiffs.
“Maybe people will listen to us now.
Sativa says it lacks the estimated $10 million to $15 million needed to upgrade the 70-year-old pipes it blames for depositing manganese in drinking water, which can make faucets run brown.
The lawsuit states Sativa “miserably failed again and again” to meet state clean drinking waters standards.
The state water board noted that from March 2017 to May 2018, Sativa received at least 97 complaints of brown water from customers.
Days later, Garza was placed on leave.

The water main break happened near Plant A on East 4th Street.
This is the second time in less than a year a leak has happened near this water plant and has disrupted service.
"Got up this morning, went to turn the water on, and water pressure was virtually non-existent,” recalled Don Simon.
That’s how some residents found out about the water main break, which disrupting morning routines and business.
"Today was my first day at Dairy Queen and they told me you can go back home because we have no water.
First day at work was pretty tragic,” Estes says.
OMU spokeswoman Sonya Dixon says they’re still determining how the leak happened.
"I understand the system, it’s a 100-year-old system, and you’re going to have this,” says Simon.
Dixon says they don’t have a set timeline on when everything will be fixed, adding they’re recommending people conserve water for now.
That means holding off on activities involving lots of water until supplies can be replenished.

"Sticking to bottled water," another commenter posted.
"I am still sticking to bottled water for at least another month just to be sure," read one more.
Despite city officials lifting the drinking water advisory last week, some in Salem are still wary of the water flowing from the tap.
Judy Stanley, a 68-year-old semi-retired South Salem resident with diabetes, said she will be drinking bottled water for at least another month, watching to see if algal toxins in the water rise above health advisory levels again.
The first do-not-drink advisory was placed May 29, three days after the city learned cyanotoxins were detected in Salem’s drinking water for the first time.
That initial alert was lifted on June 2, only for another one to be placed four days later On June 10, the second advisory was extended for at least two weeks regardless of test results, in part, the city said, to give residents more clarity as to the current water quality.
"I’m still going to continue to use bottled water for a while until I see the testing method that they’re using is actually holding up."
Powers agreed the on-again, off-again nature of the early water advisories has hurt the city’s credibility.
The social media posts from the last few days mirror the calls Salem Public Works received throughout the water crisis.
Powers said they will continue to release testing data online so people can decide for themselves if they want to drink city water.

Sandy Public Works employees are on scene investigating the water disruption that has left some homes dry this morning.
UPDATE: This latest version of this story notifies readers that a boil notice has been put in effect for customers of the Sandy municipal water system.
The city of Sandy has posted a "boil notice" due to a breakdown in the city water system that occurred sometime over night.
Areas west of Langensand Road and east of Meinig avenue primarily south of Highway 26 experienced no or very low water pressure.
When water pressure in the distribution system (the pipes in the street that serve your home or business) drops below 20 psi groundwater can be drawn back into the piping system.
This is precautionary.
It will take about 24 – 48 hours to get test results back from the lab.
We will let you know as soon as we are clear.
We apologize for the inconvenience."
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That’s exactly what happened to Dioni Amuchastegui, a technician with Idaho Power.
"I was taking an early lunch and sitting in the truck.
I happened to notice some smoke out of the corner of my eye, and I looked over and noticed that light was being refracted through a water bottle and was starting to catch the seat on fire," Amuchastegui explained.
The water bottle, Amuchastegui showed, was left in the path of direct sunlight coming through the driver’s side window.
"It’s not something you really expect – having a water bottle catch your chair on fire," he added.
But was Amuchastegui’s experience a freak accident or an actual threat?
A month after his original video was posted, the Midwest City Fire Department in Midwest City, Okla., put the water bottle scenario to the test.
Video posted by the fire department showed David Richardson successfully burning a hole through a piece of paper with a water bottle placed in direct sunlight, though Richardson warned that the experiment was successful due largely to a perfect storm of circumstances.
Amuchastegui’s experience came amidst continuing speculation as to whether or not it is safe to drink water from plastic containers that had been exposed to sunlight for extended periods of time.
Of the 16 bottles, only one exceeded EPA standards for the carcinogen antimony and bisphenol A (BPA) at the end of the trial, though researchers still cautioned against leaving water bottles in cars for extended periods of time.

But Cheryl Watson, a professor in the biochemistry and molecular biology department at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, advised people not to store bottled water in places that have a significant amount of heat, like a garage or a car parked outside.
“When you heat things up, the molecules jiggle around faster and that makes them escape from one phase into another.
So the plastic leaches its component chemicals out into the water much faster and more with heat applied to it,” Watson told TODAY.
“It’s kind of like when you put mint leaves in your tea.
The heat extracts the mint-tasting molecules and it happens faster in hot tea than it does in cold tea.” If you’ve ever left a plastic water bottle in a hot car or another very warm environment for a while, you may notice the water tastes a little funny, Watson noted: “That’s everybody’s bottom-line sensing mechanism — you can even taste it,” she said.
A 2014 study analyzed 16 brands of bottled water sold in China that were kept at 158 degrees Fahrenheit for four weeks and found increased levels of antimony — listed as a toxic substance by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — and bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical in certain plastics that can mimic estrogen and has been under scrutiny for years But of the 16 brands, only one exceeded the EPA standard for antimony and BPA, a University of Florida news release noted.
“I don’t want to mislead people, saying bottled water is not safe.
Bottled water is fine.
You can drink it — just don’t leave it in a hot temperature for a long time.
I think that’s the important message,” Lena Ma, the study’s co-author and a professor of biogeochemistry of trace metals at the University of Florida, told Yahoo Health.

Packaged water and drinks manufacturers can heave a sigh of relief as the Maharashtra government has now exempted them from the banned plastic list.
The plastic ban came into effect in the state from June 23.
On Monday, a revised notification was issued which suggests a refundable charge for PET bottles.
As per the notification, the manufacturers are allowed to decide the rate they want to impose during purchase.
As per a report in The Times of India, the manufacturers are not in favour of the buyback rates and are opposing the same.
However, as per the notification, PET bottles of less than 500ml capacity have been banned for drinking water.
It further added that they would recommend a refundable buyback charge of Rs 2 for bottles with 500ml to 1 litre capacity.
The above rule is also applicable for Milk pouches under the scheme.
A refundable charge of 50p will be charged for a pouch of milk.
Nearly 1.2 crore PET bottles are manufactured every day in the state.

Cape Town, South Africa, has seen a drop in bottled water sales as Day Zero–the day the city runs out of water–has been averted and residents become more water self-sufficient.
In January 2018, bottled water sales were up by 118%, according to local news source News24.
Many residents stockpiled water reserves as Day Zero loomed, but now as dam levels rise the fear is easing.
As of June 2018, Western Cape dam levels were 32.1%, compared to 20.9% in 2017.
The increase is attributed to a combination of water savings efforts and spring rains.
To meet the water restrictions, many residents have installed rainwater harvesting tanks or sunk boreholes, easing the demand for bottled water.
Residents also have decreased bottled water stockpiling over a new fear–plastic particles.
A recent study by the State University of New York investigated plastic particles in bottled water and the World Health Organization recently launched an investigation on microplastics in bottled water.
The City of Cape Town has urged residents to adhere to the expiration date on plastic bottled water.

The Maharashtra government has allowed bottled water makers to decide buyback charge for the bottles, reported The Times of India.
According to the report, the decision comes after the manufacturers opposed the buyback rates, stating they are very high, especially for the smaller bottles.
As per the revised notification, manufacturers have been given green signal to decide the rate they want to impose during purchase.
As per the notification, PET bottles below 500 ml capacity have been banned for packaging water.
Additionally, the report said that bottles with 500 ml to 1 litre capacity can be sold with a recommended refundable buyback charge of Rs 2 and those of I litre could be charged Rs 1, the report said.
“We made representations to the government to review the refundable charge, especially for smaller bottles.
The Rs 2 prescribed by them was too high and would have made the whole scheme impractical,” an official was quoted as saying in the report.
The development comes as the Maharashtra government issued a plastic ban in the state.