Sebastian Becerra

ENGL 2010

The end of the world, unless…?

It’s the year 2500 and with a bag of clothes and your most cherished items on your side, you say goodbye

to your childhood home forever. When I think of the future, I imagine a dark, and grim earth, something from a

very dystopian novel or movie. If you’ve seen the movie Wall-E, that’s what comes to mind when I think of the

future. Garbage piling over the streets, and the size of skyscrapers, and humans fled earth because we destroyed

our planet. That’s the future that we’re heading towards, and we need to do everything in our power, now, to

change our destiny.

As our global population continues to increase, so does our strain on the earth’s resources. At our current

growth rate, the human population is estimated to double approximately every 61 years (Rosenberg, 2020), it

would be expected that our current demand on such resources should also double to support a doubling

population. Being the 3rd state with most national parks, we should be more conscious when making decisions that

affect our local environment and our beautiful state; it’s no surprise that locals here in Salt Lake have taken action

to minimize their impact on resources and become more ‘eco-friendly’.

In an unpublished environmental survey-based study conducted by a local student attending Salt Lake

Community College (SLCC) found that the majority of Utahns are environmentally conscious, and actively make

choices to reduce their impact on the environment. One study participant stated, “Water usage and general

recourses dwindling without proper recycling or care towards limited resources.” An infographic by the Utah

Department of Environmental Quality states 9 ways to ‘go green’ and one of them is to use a reusable water bottle

– but luckily for us, Utahns are way ahead of this. As far as the eye can see, from classrooms to offices, from gyms

to grocery stores, you’ll see people with reusable water bottles – a simple, yet easy and effective method to help

reduce waste. It’s no surprise that in the study conducted, 85% of participants regularly use reusable water bottles

(Becerra, 2023). By regularly reusable water bottles, not only can we increase our water intake (Patel et al., 2011),

we can minimize unnecessary waste. It’s worth mentioning that 4 out of 5 single use water bottles end up in the

trash (Schriever, 2017) which ultimately makes it to our local landfills. The big portion of potentially recyclable

waste that ends up in our landfills isn’t the end of the story for plastic water bottles, unfortunately. The World
Wildlife Fund (WWF) states that single-use plastics like water bottles take roughly 450 years to decompose (WWF

Australia, 2021).

Even large corporations, like Coca-Cola, taken swift action to reduce their plastic waste. Something as

simple as rebranding the easily recognizable green ‘Sprite’ soda bottle to a new clear soda bottle has allowed their

plastic bottles to be 100% recyclable now – the green dye in their old bottles had an additive which isn’t able to be

recycled (Valinsky, 2022). Our local news network KSL recently interviewed Erica Hansen, the external

communications manager for Swire Coca-Cola. When asked about the recent change, Erica replied, “That shows

the importance of sustainability for both the Coca-Cola Company and Swire Coca-Cola that it’s time for us to be a

leader.” She then added, “We want to encourage people to recycle, and this is a way we’re trying to help lead the

change” (Cabrero, 2022). A local Salt Lake City resident stated in an unpublished survey when asked about any

environmental concerns stated, “I know that the sustainable choices I make are totally canceled out by

corporations who pollute excessively. I still try though.” (Becerra, 2023). When made aware of the recent change

enacted by Coca-Cola, she said, “it’s still not enough, there’s still room for improvement.” For large companies that

aren’t mindful about their waste, the time is now to follow in the steps of Coca-Cola to reduce their impact on our

local environments in the fight against climate change. It’s through conscious effort that we can make a change in

our world to help reduce waste and help turn the tide in the fight against climate change. Locally, our citizens do

what they can to reduce waste in Utah; in the same study, it was found that 84% of participants own and regularly

use ‘eco-friendly products (Becerra, 2023). When Brenda was asked her thoughts on companies like Coca-Cola

taking action to reduce waste and be more environmentally friendly she said, “you know, it makes me happy to

see large corporations doing stuff like this, it’s important for big names like Coke taking steps which will then lead

to even more corporations doing the same, I think even from a monetary standpoint it can be great advertisement

too, as that will appeal to that many more people – expand their already HUGE demographic.”

Another method that we can take to help reduce our impact on the environment is using public

transportation. to help reduce carbon dioxide output from excess vehicles on the road. On a recent article

published by local news network KSL about traffic congestion and the proposed highway expansion, the Journalist

Grant Frazier, talks about something called ‘induced demand.’ This phenomenon explains how increased demand

of a product increases it’s price or worth, but increased production lowers the same products worth; interestingly
enough it also applies to infrastructure, in the example of a new lane being added. Frazier says, “The result is that

more individuals opt to drive than before, and inevitably, the traffic becomes just as bad, if not worse, than it was

prior to expansion. Not to mention the fact that more drivers means more pollution…If we want to solve our traffic

woes, then we need to get serious about alternative methods of transportation” (Frazier, 2022). In the survey-

study performed by Becerra, it was found that only 31% of participants have taken public transportation within the

last 12 months, and only 15% within the past 6 months (Becerra, 2023).

There are various ways that even a single person can take to help improve our world for us now, and for

generations to come. It’s important to come together when it comes to taking care of our planet, as we only have

one. We must work together to help reduce our carbon footprint, and inevitably, save the world.
 Works Cited
Cabrero, A. P.- A. 4. (2022, August 4). Sprite bottles at Utah's Swire Coca-Cola Going Green by
Ditching Green. KSL.com. Retrieved April 18, 2023, from
https://www.ksl.com/article/50452363/sprite-bottles-at-utahs-swire-coca-cola-going-green-
by-ditching-green

Bruchmann, K., Chue, S. M., Dillon, K., Lucas, J. K., Neumann, K., & Parque, C. (2021, September
28). Social comparison information influences intentions to reduce single-use plastic water
bottle consumption. Frontiers in psychology. Retrieved April 18, 2023, from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8506027/

Laville, S., & Taylor, M. (2017, June 28). A million bottles a minute: World's plastic binge 'as
dangerous as climate change'. The Guardian. Retrieved April 18, 2023, from
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/28/a-million-a-minute-worlds-plastic-
bottle-binge-as-dangerous-as-climate-change

Frazier, Grant. “Grant Frazier: Bigger Highways Don't Fix Traffic. Why Won't We Stop Building
Them?” The Salt Lake Tribune, 22 Dec. 2022,
https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2022/12/22/grant-frazier-bigger-highways/.

Rosenberg, M. (2020, March 24). How to measure and understand population growth. ThoughtCo.
Retrieved April 18, 2023, from https://www.thoughtco.com/population-growth-rates-
1435469

Larsen, L. P.- F. 26. (2023, February 26). Utah regulators to deny permit for landfill on the shores of
Great Salt Lake. KSL.com. Retrieved April 18, 2023, from
https://www.ksl.com/article/50587183/utah-regulators-to-deny-permit-for-landfill-on-the-
shores-of-great-salt-lake

Patel, A. I., Bogart, L. M., Elliott, M. N., Lamb, S., Uyeda, K. E., Hawes-Dawson, J., Klein, D. J., &
Schuster, M. A. (2011, May). Increasing the availability and consumption of drinking water in
middle schools: A pilot study. Preventing chronic disease. Retrieved April 18, 2023, from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3103565/

Schriever, N. (2017, December 7). Plastic water bottles causing flood of harm to our
environment. HuffPost. Retrieved April 18, 2023, from
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/post_b_3613577

WWF Australia. (2021, July 1). The lifecycle of plastics: WWF-australia: The Lifecycle of Plastics.
WWF Australia. Retrieved April 18, 2023, from https://www.wwf.org.au/blogs/the-lifecycle-
of-plastics/?rd=1
Valinsky, J. (2022, July 28). Sprite will no longer be sold in Green Bottles. KSL.com. Retrieved April
18, 2023, from https://www.ksl.com/article/50447462/sprite-will-no-longer-be-sold-in-green-
bottles

Becerra, S (2023) [Unpublished raw data on Environmental Sustainability in Utah] Salt Lake
Community College.
 Appendix A.
Survey-Based Questionnaire Study & Data Collected

1. Have you taken public transportation within the last month?

a. Yes: 0%
b. No: 100%
2. Have you taken public transportation within the last 3 months?
a. Yes: 8%
b. No: 92%
3. Have you taken public transportation within the last 6 months?
a. Yes: 15%
b. No: 85%
4. Have you taken public transportation within the last 12 months?
a. Yes: 31%
b. No: 69%
5. Do your showers run longer than 10 minutes?
a. Yes: 54%
b. No: 46%
6. Do you carpool to work/school?
a. Yes: 85%
b. No: 15%
7. Do you use reusable water bottles?
a. Yes: 85%
b. No: 15%
8. Do you recycle?
a. Yes: 77%
b. No: 23%
9. Do you think that you, as an individual can directly impact (either negatively or positively)
our environment?
a. Yes: 77%
b. No: 23%
10. Do you purchase or use an ‘eco-friendly’ products? (e.g. reusable straws, products made
from recycled materials, reusable bags, reusable totes, etc.)
a. Yes: 85%
b. No: 15%
11. Do you have any environmental concerns?
a. Yes: 70%
b. No: 30%