We use plastic for everything. Even though it is recyclable if you do not recycle it it takes 500 years to decompose. Recently people have been taking the step away from styrofoam and toward plastic but we need to take another step and use paper or corn based cups. It takes one million years for glass bottle to biodegrade, five years for a plastic coated paper cup and five thousand years for styrofoam. It is pretty obvious what the right choice is so why aren’t we making it? Of course because plastic is cheaper than paper.

Not only is plastic bad for our environment but it is bad for ourselves. Almost all water bottles contain many chemicals that over time are leaching into the fluid in the bottle. One of these chemicals is BPA which stands for bisphenol A. BPA is found in toys, water bottles, storage containers, and baby bottles. Many reusable bottles are now sold BPA free but water bottles are not. BPA free bottles have not been sold until recently.As a result of drinking out of plastic bottles we have been slowly poisoning ourselves.

‘Gender-bending’ chemical found in canned foods increases risk of heart disease and diabetes

Just five days of eating canned soup dramatically increases levels of hormone-mimicking bisphenol A. Scientists blame this increase on manufacturers using BPA in the lining of soup tins to prevent them from rusting.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/11/23/canned-foods-contain-gender-bending-chemicals_n_1109550.html

BPA is an organic compound that can mimic the body’s own hormones and previous research has warned it can increase the risk of illnesses including heart disease, diabetes and obesity.