The objective of the 6 question survey that we conducted was for us to understand your use of single-use plastic water bottles. The survey received 224 responses and was conducted in Northern California with a small percentage of participants from across the United States. We found at least 5 takeaways from all the information that was gathered.
How many are used:
Approximately 70% of the people that were surveyed said they use 1-15 water bottles per month. Compared to the 16.5% of families who said that they use zero plastic bottles a month, the amount of families that do use 1-15 per month is clearly a very significant difference. To many, this amount of bottles may not seem like a lot. However, since most families said that they used 1-15 per month, this amount will surely add up over time. This will result in tremendous uses of single-use plastic bottles over periods of time which will also hugely impact the environment in a very harmful way.
Where they are bought:
60% of the families that were surveyed said that they get their single-use plastic water bottles from Costco, a large retail company in the US that uses Kirkland as their brands’ name. The reason that people buy water bottles from Costco is because they are cheap and come in bulk. If Costco increased their prices or flat out stopped selling their plastic water bottles, the consumption of them would go down significantly. People would have to resort to going to other grocery stores where the prices are higher and are usually sold in smaller cases than Costco, which not many people would be ready to do. This would be a massive step in the right direction towards getting rid of single-use plastic water bottles.
Sizes:
The most used size that consumers of water bottles use is 8 oz. This shows that more plastic is being used. Since when you buy an 8 oz bottle, it is the smallest size, you have to buy more and more of them, it results in more plastic being used. Whereas if larger bottles were being used, even though there is some more plastic used to make it, it is still better than buying smaller bottles more frequently. See our next blog post for something very interesting we learned about bottle sizes and amount of plastic used.
Why people use:
People use single-use plastic bottles the most for traveling. This shows that it is not for everyday use, which is good, but they can still be eliminated in travel with many solutions. For example, you can carry a reusable bottle. Even if you do get some plastic water bottles, try to get bigger sizes of them, so you don’t use as much.
Recycling:
Approximately half of the people surveyed said that they always recycle single-use plastic water bottles. The other half either said they recycle frequently, sometimes, rarely or never. This shows that half of the people surveyed do recycle their plastic bottles, but the other half of those people don't recycle every time which needs to change. National Geographic Magazine in 2018 said that “A whopping 91% of plastic isn’t recycled.” Even though it is awful for the environment to use plastic water bottles in the first place, to not recycle them all the time is even worse.
Call To Action:
For Us:
Learn more about why people answered what they did.
Urge people to buy fewer single-use plastic bottles.
Urge people to recycle single-use plastic water bottles if they still buy them.
For You:
Buy fewer and fewer single-use plastic bottles.
If you still buy them, always recycle.
Use bigger bottles to reduce the amount of plastic used