Consumers in the United States lead the world in the expenditure of bottled water with the billions of dollars worth of bottled water purchased every day. PET and PLA plastics are alike in cost of energy, material and labor. They feed the economy of either overseas oil benefactors or U.S. farmers. The two plastics are alike in many ways, but both have their faults. PET plastics are hardly ever recycled properly, and will never decompose. PLA plastics are unstable and will melt at high temperatures. The back and forth of pro’s and con’s for these two plastics are endless; however, one important fact remains.

Whether the bottle is PLA corn plastic or PET traditional plastic, the global environmental movement is in a crisis with bottles piling up in landfills across the world. While PLA plastic can biodegrade, and PET plastic already has a suitable recycling system, the problem still remains that consumers are unable to properly dispose of these plastics. The trend of going green only helps further the cause that plastics building up will only have a negative impact on the environment, the global economy and social endeavors of nations everywhere. The purchasers of plastics and the pioneers of bottled water need to reach forward into a future where recycling is common practice and the 50,180 tons of recyclable waste isn’t filtering into landfills to sit for millions of years. The problem has never been about the plastics, it has been about the education of the consumer and the need for change on their part.