Plastic water bottles. We love to hate them. And we hate to love them. Could we even imagine a life without them? They are the lightweight carriers of the liquid that is essential for our lives and our health. So why not start by understanding the life cycle of a water bottle?
Today, with the increased awareness of the perils of plastics to humans and our ecosystem, most of us want to do our part by recycling and reducing plastic. Knowing the process of how and when waste is generated, where it is disposed of, and the impact it has on the environment is important.
Allow us to guide you through the different stages in the life of a water bottle, right from its manufacturing to its decomposition. We also offer some easy ways you can reduce your impact and help reduce plastic waste.
Quick Navigation
A Bit About Plastic Water Bottles
Plastic water bottles are made of polyethylene terephthalate, otherwise known as PET, and have been around since 1941. According to the Container Recycling Institute, between 1960 and 1970, the average person bought between 200 and 250 packaged drinks per annum. Since then, there has been a steady increase in plastic water bottle production to meet consumer demand. No wonder we are now left with more plastic than we can deal with.
According to National Geographic, it takes 450 years for a PET plastic bottle (water bottle) to decompose. Worse still, if a water bottle is left in a landfill, buried under sand and other waste, it is unlikely to decompose as the only way for the bottle to break down is by light/UV rays hitting it. This is called photodegradation. When sunlight hits a water bottle, it breaks down the bonds that hold the plastic polymer together.
The other side of the story is when a bottle gets left in the environment, where it breaks down into smaller pieces. This can result in plastic getting embedded into the soil or entering waterways, ultimately impacting land and aquatic animals and possibly even getting into our own food.
Is there a solution? Do we need to find alternatives? Or can we recycle our way out of this?
The Life of a Water Bottle
How Are Plastic Bottles Made?
The life of a water bottle starts with the extraction of oil or natural gas, which contains compounds called hydrocarbons. When hydrocarbons are subjected to heat, they break down into monomers. To make plastic, the monomers get joined together into polymers. Different groupings of monomers create different groupings of polymers or types of plastics, e.g., PET (which is used to make water bottles) or HDPE (which is used to make milk bottles).
If you want to learn more about monomers and polymers then take a look at What is Plastic: A simple explanation.
This plastic is delivered to bottle manufacturers/converters in different forms, such as flakes or pellets. These pellets may be used as-is or combined with pellets made from recycled plastic. The manufacturing plant then melts the PET pellets and injects the mixture into molds to shape it into a bottle. They are then heated and molded into bottles or into preforms which are then blown into bottles. Preforms are small versions of plastic bottles that are easier to transport and move around the plant. This process’s final step involves blowing hot air into the hollow plastic preform to inflate it and create the final product, a plastic bottle.
Here is a great video that shows you the full process.
The water bottles are normally transported to another plant where they are filled with water, and a cap is placed on them. They are dispatched to the grocery stores, where they’re stocked and sold. Finally, you buy a water bottle from the store, drink the water, and hopefully decide to recycle the empty bottle.
How Are Water Bottles Recycled?
The life of a water bottle does not end at the point it is emptied of its contents. If treated correctly, a plastic water bottle can be recycled and made into a new water bottle or a different plastic item. This cycle can then be repeated over and over again.
COLLECTION
The thorough process of recycling a plastic bottle starts with the collection. Every year millions of bottles are collected, either by private services, individual collectors (otherwise known as waste pickers or reclaimers), or municipal systems. Once the bottles are collected, they are compressed into huge bales. These are big square blocks made up of compressed bottles, making them easier to transport. The bales are transported to a recycling plant.
SORTING
The bales are fed into a sorting machine where they are broken apart. Any metal or other materials, including different plastic types that could contaminate the recyclate, is removed. In some countries, the remaining PET is color sorted by hand – each bottle is separated into its color stream. Other non PET bottles that have made it through also get discarded here. The bottles are then crushed into small flakes.
WASHING AND DRYING
Next is the washing process, where the flakes are put into a large tank of water. PET flakes have a density greater than water and will sink to the bottom. Washing also removes contaminants like glue, grease, leftover food, or dried liquid. This leaves behind clean, pure PET flakes.
The flakes are then dried, extruded (forced through a mold), cooled, and chopped into short pieces. They are now ready to be made into fiber or pellets for new water bottles.
OPTION 1: THE FLAKES ARE TURNED INTO FOOD-GRADE rPET (RECYCLED PET)
If the bottles are clear or light blue, they can be recycled right back into brand new water bottles. If a bottle is becoming a new bottle, it will go from these short pieces and be made into food-grade pellets, then blown into a brand-new water bottle.
OPTION 2: THE FLAKES ARE MADE INTO POLYESTER STAPLE FIBER
Material that can’t be used for food-grade rPET is used to make Polyester fiber. The pellets are melted and pushed through tiny holes that turn them into tiny spinnerets (thin strands – think of spaghetti). They are then combined into a single rope, which is heated, loosened, and stretched. To make the polyester feel more natural, the fiber is crimped – this results in fluffy fiber with a luxurious texture.
The bales are then broken up, and the fibers are separated and then sewn into a single sheet made up of thousands of polyester threads. The result is a roll of recycled PET material, ready for use in manufacture. It can be dyed any color and used in the production of many new products.
What do Recycled Water Bottles Become?
The bottle colors impact their end uses. Clear and light blue bottles can be made into brand new water bottles or can be used as inputs for thermoforms. These are used to make PET tubs, trays, or smoothie/juice takeaway cups.
The largest end-use market for rPET (recycled PET) made from brown or green bottles is polyester staple fiber. This can be used in a variety of products, such as:
- Yoga and activewear leggings
- Swimwear
- Outdoor wear
- Reusable shopping bags
- Fiber for the inside of pillows and duvets
- Fiber for the inside of dog beds
- Fiber for roof insulation
- Or for car mats
Green bottles can also be used to make bristles for brooms or strapping (the strong straps used to hold things together like blocks of bricks).
Why Do So Many Bottles End Up in the Environment?
There are two “simple” reasons for this.
The first reason is the lack of infrastructure and access to recycling. What can actually be recycled in a particular city, region or country depends on the infrastructure available. In addition to this, certain municipalities might not have certain collection services in place to collect materials making it too much effort for consumers.
The second reason is lack of education. There is often a lack of knowledge about the safety, recyclability, and reusability of water bottles. The role of packaging is also not always understood. This can make it difficult for people to see value in the packaging and how important recycling is.
Add these two reasons together and you have discarded plastic water bottles.
Why Should You Recycle Water Bottles?
These days, recycling often doesn’t require much effort. All you have to do is remember to throw the trash into the right bins. It benefits the environment and the economy.
Did you know that less than 9% of plastic generation from the U.S. stream was recycled in 2018? We can do better!
Below are some reasons why you should start recycling.
To Conserve Natural Resources and Energy
Recycling saves energy. According to the Recycling Coalition of Utah, recycling plastic takes 88% less energy than making it from raw materials. Recycling also saves the natural resource, crude oil, used in manufacturing plastic.
To Keep Them Out Of The Oceans
Plastic endangers the life of underwater creatures, right from smaller fishes to huge mammals and amphibians. When marine creatures consume plastic, it causes critical digestive problems, which mainly go untreated. The risk can spread to larger fish and aquatic mammals through the food chain. Apart from the risks of polluted marine waters, plastic ingestion by fish and other marine creatures also causes harm to people who consume these fish.
Reduce The Amount of Trash That Goes To Landfills
Recycling plastic items helps cut down the amount of waste that goes into landfills. The rate at which trash is generated is overwhelming. In 2018, 27 million tons of plastic went to landfills in America. This was 18.5 percent of the total Municipal Waste landfilled.
To Create New Jobs
Apart from all the reasons mentioned above, one reason that often goes unnoticed is that recycling creates new jobs for people who collect recyclable things and work at recycling centers. This, in turn, creates more jobs at companies that turn recycled plastic into new items.
Check out our Brand Directory to support the companies making amazing things from your trash.
Ways to reduce your impact
The key to reducing the use of plastic water bottles is to start small and work your way up to a point where not using them becomes a lifestyle. You can start by undertaking the measures suggested below.
Get a stainless steel water bottle
This is a great way to keep you from buying plastic water bottles. Carry your own reusable water bottle, preferably a double-wall vacuum insulated stainless steel water bottle. It will keep the hot drinks hot and cold drinks cold.
If you have no choice and need to use a single-use item, keep it and reuse it, e.g., cutlery or chopsticks.
Here’s one of our favorite stainless steel water bottles from Healthy Human and if you click the link you can get $5 off your first purchase.
Invest in a water filter
If you buy plastic water in bottles because your local water’s quality is of a poor quality, a great way to reduce plastic is to invest in a water filter. It would be a much better, eco-friendly switch. It’s also more economical in the long run. You can even ask your office to set up a water filtration system if they do not have one already. This will encourage employees to get their own reusable bottles.
If You Need to Buy Water Choose the Right Bottle
We have a role to try and “close the loop” by helping the system to use waste as a resource that can be brought back into the supply chain when we are done using it. In this model, plastic packaging doesn’t become waste, instead, it becomes a resource that can re-enter the economy. For water bottles, this can happen fully. Water bottles can be turned into brand new water bottles if basic design principles are followed.
What does this mean and what can you do to help?
At the fridge/shelf:
- Choose clear or light blue bottles: the white (opaque), luminous yellows, reds, black PET bottles are likely to end up in landfills. Apart from there being no market for them, they have a slightly different composition and can block the fiber spinnerets at recycling plants. As a result, recyclers often go through the cost of shredding them only to dump them in landfills.
- Choose a bottle with no shrink-sleeve: another problem is bottles covered with a shrink sleeve made from other harder to recycle plastics like Polyvinyl Chloride, Polystyrene, PET, or PETG. Examples of this are the full wrapped sleeves often found on containers for mayonnaise, salad dressing, etc. In some cases, the sleeves are removed one by one, by hand. Very expensive! Some brands are now adding a perforated sleeve so that consumers can tear the shrink sleeve off before placing their water bottles into the recycling bin.
- Choose bottles with easy-to-remove labels: choose water bottles with labels that come off easily; bottles with labels stuck on with sticky glue that can’t come off in the washing process are headed straight for landfill.
Other Great Ways to Help
Educate and Encourage Children to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
Discuss with your child’s school principal, school board, and teachers about setting up recycling programs at school for children. You can also talk to them about rethinking selling bottled water to their students and setting up a water filtration system instead. Ask them to keep multiple recycle bins across the campus if they don’t have them in place already.
Organize Community Drives
You can organize community drives to pick up plastic bottles and cans in parks and along the streets. You can make signs to spread awareness about the importance of recycling and how easy it is to do. Attend local rallies and efforts to restrict and ban the use of single-use plastics. Remember, your voice matters!
Choose Eco-Friendly Alternatives
Just in case you do forget to bring your reusable water bottle with you, don’t panic. You can always find a fountain or ask a coffee shop for a glass of water.
Every small action makes a big difference. Find more reduce and reuse ideas here.
The Wrap
Today, with the increased awareness of the perils of plastics to humans and our ecosystem, most of us want to do our part by recycling and reducing the use of plastic. Knowing the process of how and when waste is generated, where it is disposed of, and the impact it has on the environment is important.
The life of a water bottle is a long and energy-intensive process. There are many steps in the process, from the extraction of raw materials from the earth, processing, manufacturing, filling, and then transportation and distribution.
We all have a role to play in reducing plastic. It might be choosing from brands who have designed their bottles so they can be recycled, using a reusable water bottle, or simply placing your bottle in a recycling bin when you are done with it. Small changes can make big differences.
On the off chance you end up purchasing a plastic water bottle, you can reduce your environmental impact significantly by choosing to recycle it. Don’t simply toss it in the garbage can after the water is over.
Sources
- Container Recycling Institute
- Laura Parker, 2019, The story of plastic: How the plastic bottle went from miracle container to hated garbage
- Sales volume of bottled water in the United States from 2010 to 2019,
- EPA, National Overview: Facts and Figures on Materials, Wastes and Recycling
- EPA, Plastics: Material-Specific Data
- Recycling Coalition of Utah
