Microplastics – Freely Floating In Bottled Water

Plastic is a synthetic material which doesn’t degrade easily. The consumption of plastic has jumped from one million tons in 1945 to 300 million tons by 2015 (and growing constantly). Plastic can be broken down into smaller particles through photo – oxidative-process – still the fundamental structure of plastic remains the same. Today, plastic is widely used and littered in the external environment – from the water bodies to dry land.

Bottled water is generally the most appealing choice while travelling. However, according to a recent survey – The Orb Study revealed that 99% of all bottled water contain freely floating microplastics!

What did the The Orb Study Reveal?

The researches found that out the 250 bottled water tested of all major water companies in the world (from countries like Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Thailand, and the United States);   93% of them contain microplastics – which is thicker than a strand of human hair. Nile red dye is placed inside the water bottles to test the presence of floating plastic particles, and the image below shows how the dye captures the plastic particles and turns them to fluorescent.

Sherri Mason – a professor who is researching on this project,  from the State University of New York in Fredonia said :

“We found [plastic] in bottle after bottle and brand after brand.

“It’s not about pointing fingers at particular brands; it’s really showing that this is everywhere, that plastic has become such a pervasive material in our society, and it’s pervading water—all of these products that we consume at a very basic level.”

India ranks second in the list of countries who have the highest plastic content in their packaged water bottles!

As an average estimation – a person drinking their daily fill of water from bottled water consume a few thousand plastic particles daily.  Most of the bottled water manufacturing companies stand by their method of sourcing and packaging and state their state of the art precautions taking to ensure the safety of people.

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