If the earth's water cycle is closed, does it matter that water is often sealed in bottles and discarded?

Question

If the total amount of water on the earth remains the same with only negligible changes then should we always empty bottles with liquid before tossing them? I admit, I always do, but I do often see partially filled bottles of of water, soda, etc. that have been tossed. Is this water then lost to the cycle for who knows how long? There is a theory that our water supply is growing via "snowballs" from space : http://library.thinkquest.org/C0126220/environment/advance1_e.htm
but I don't know much about it.

I should add that I have a extreme aversion to wasting resources.

Answer 1

Ground water doesn't get depleted; the ground is a big sponge with rocks in it. When the rain falls, it soaks into the ground and follows the path of least resistance downward until it hits those rocks. Then it evaporates or slowly travels to streams or lakes, where it evaporates, continuing the cycle. When ground water gets ruined, the problem is that the ground has poisons in it that leech into the water, making it useless to us.

While there are some losses of water, the plastic will eventually break down and the water will escape. But the bad part of our constant pollution is that the ground is getting more contaminated all the time; we really should be careful. It's usually pretty easy to take care, I'm not talking about Herculean tasks. Bottled water should really have a deposit like soda pop does to keep the litter down.

Answer 2

i've got on no account are available in the time of bottled water expiring the comparable month i offered it and that i don't comprehend that it would be very clean if it quite is the case... yet bottled water has an expiration date because of the fact over the years, it has a tendency to %. up off-flavors from its packaging. extreme storage temperatures additionally make contributions to the era of musty tastes interior the water, so ideally, the manufacturers might desire to label the water offered in warmer climates with shorter expiration dates (I doubt they do this because of the fact it quite is amazingly complicated logistically). besides, there should not be any microbial concerns with bottled water as long as its equipment hasn't been compromised.

Answer 3

It remains roughly the same.

About the bottles. The first thing is that we have already depleted the ground water by huge amounts, so that water is now in lake, rivers, oceans, our bladders, and whatnot. So, burying a little won't make much difference. Anyway, being buried under all kinds of crap in a landfill may not break down a bottle very fast, but it won't be long until it leaks.

Answer 4

yeah it is ok to keep water in bottles for a while...
... as long as they aren't 9999999999 gazillion trillion litre bottles.