Bottled water on campus: coming and going
The following stories show a range of bottled-water activism on college campuses. In Ontario, Ryerson University will ban sales of bottled water by 2013. Why the lag? It takes a long time, apparently, to get new fountains up and running (and to run out vending contracts). Still, it’s a brave move. According to The Eyeopener Online, “The ban will impact the university’s contract with Coca-Cola, which allows the corporation exclusive rights to sell beverages on campus. In return, Ryerson gets $765,000 a year if enough products are sold, with the bulk of the money going to scholarships, bursaries and athletics.”
At Humboldt State, reports The Lumberjack, Captain Reducer, who’d recently seen the anti-bottled water documentary Tapped, stood in the quad and railed against bottled water. Here’s his picture:
The administration asked him to lower his mic, a student suggested he use more facts. Everyone’s a critic.
At Wesleyan, students are discussing ways to reduce bottled water use on campus, including the use of a filtered-water dispensing machine. The filtered water would cost half as much as bottled, so campus caterer Bon Appetit would still see some revenue from water. But I wonder about students’ mental calculus: one of the attractions of bottled water is that you don’t have any responsibility toward the bottle. You drink your beverage, and you throw the bottle into the recycling bin. That’s what the industry calls convenience (that, and not having to carry a reusable around with you). How would you feel about paying 50 to 75 cents for a half liter of water and then still having to carry and wash it? All of a sudden, it’s not looking so convenient. So much easier and cheaper to just drink (or refill) from a fountain.
My question: What’s wrong with the tap water at Wesleyan? It makes more sense to me to actually find out (through independent lab testing), and then, if there’s anything to worry about, to install filters in existing fountains and install more of them, the same as other institutions (Google) and schools (Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Winnipeg, etc. etc.)
Anne Rosenthal, ’10, Wesleyan’s Environmental Organizers Network co-coordinator and representative to the dining committee, has it right. From the Wesleyan Argus: “The crux of this campaign is the awareness issue, because when kids get off campus there’s going to be bottled water everywhere,” Rosenthal said. “We just want them to get in the habit of thinking about the impacts of their purchases and getting used to alternatives.”
Ben Firke, ’12, chair of the dining committee, is being cautious: “We want to be good stewards of the earth,” Firke said. “But we also want to make sure that if there’s something that Wesleyan students really become reliant on, we’re not going to deprive them of that for what they would interpret as being arbitrary reasons.”
Arbitrary reasons? Please, listen to Rosenthal’s economic, health, and environmental arguments. And just because we’re reliant on something — coal-burning power plants, slaves, the trade in whale blubber — doesn’t mean we can or ought to stick with it for all time. What do you think the class of 1980, or ’85 or even ’90 drank when they were thirsty for water?
Elizabeth Royte is the author of 
4 comments
Hello, Elizabeth,
I write about Sustainability for the second most-read Brazilian newspaper, called O Estado de S. Paulo. We are planning to do a story on bottled water among the reports of our special on World Water Day. I would like to talk to you about that. Could you please tell me your personal e-mail address or telephone number?
Thank you very much in advance.
You will find my contacts right below.
Best wishes,
Fernanda Fava
Journalist – O Estado de S. Paulo
fernanda.fava@grupoestado.com.br
fernandafava@gmail.com
+ 55 (11) 8546 6950
Hi Elizabeth: Bottled water’s plastic PET containers have decreased in weight by 32.6% since the year 2000. Our recycling rate now stands at 30.9%, the highest for any product container in America. It was recently determined by outside analysts that bottled water has the smallest carbon footprint of any packaged beverage. As far as I can tell, no industry has worked harder to address the concerns of its critics. If there’s been any “Bottlemania” going on, it’s been water bottlers working to meet the concerns of a real circle of critics who won’t take “yes” for an answer. IBWA’s code of practice is stricter than the FDA in several instances, never more lax. It’s like talking to the wall, but these things really must be said.
Hi Tom, Thanks for commenting. I’m responding so you feel less like you’re talking to a wall. Yes, I understand that the bottled-water industry has reduced the weight of its PET bottles, but those companies still want to sell more and more bottles of water. All that PET adds up (as does the fuel used to haul all that water around). Yes! your recycling rate has gone up (congratulations), but the vast majority (69.1 %) of single-use water bottles are still being buried in dumps, burned in incinerators, or littered along roads, in parks, forests, on waterways, etc. (Surely the rate would go up if the industry supported, instead of fought, container recycling laws.) And yes, bottled water’s carbon footprint is smaller than that of other packaged beverage’s, but most Americans can still drink water un-packaged from spigots and taps (though yes, some may want to filter that water first). I’m glad that IBWA’s code of practice is stricter than the FDA’s, but not all bottled-water companies are members of IBWA, and your standards are still not universally binding and enforceable, nor are inspection results available to the public (as they are with tap water).
Hi Elizabeth! Many of IBWA members, small and large, provide public information of their water analysis. And do it proudly. If you find a company that doesn’t give you the information you need, choose another brand. The reason municipal water systems are required by law to report water quality information is that consumers do not have a choice. You can not choose your tap water. You can choose from many brands and types of bottled water. On the recycling issue, we prefer supporting single-stream curbside recycling because it is easier and more efficient that hauling bags of empties back to the store. PLUS, curbside recycling captures all those detergent bottles, shampoo containers, and the thousands of other products packaged in plastic. Its in our best interest to capture them all.
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