ELLEN KURT ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
In an effort to encourage people to stop buying cases of water, student senate and the Energy and Environmental Sustainability Initiative Task Force (EESI) joined forces and provided reusable water bottles to first-years during Orange EXCELeration.
On campus, students have the option of buying bottled water or refilling their water bottles.
“Personally it is easier just to grab a bottle of water. I find it gross to fill up my water bottle with bathroom water. Maybe if there was a water fountain in every dorm, students would buy less bottled water,” Katie Weisert said.
A case of water from the Waverly Wal-Mart costs an average of $3.59, which is about 1,900 times more than the same amount would cost from the tap according to Tammy Faux, Wartburg sustainability officer.
“The cost of just one case of bottled water could supply a person in Kenya with clean, safe drinking water for the next 5 years,” Faux said.
Weisert said she was shocked by this statistic, but said it doesn’t make her not want to buy bottled water.
“It will make me think twice the next time I want to buy a case of water, but I probably will still buy it,” Weisert said.
According to a Chicago Tribune article, a glass of tap water is actually better for a person than any bottled water, because the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) more strictly regulates it whereas the Food and Drug Administration regulates bottled water.
“I think students have a false image that bottled water is better for you, when it’s really not,” Rachel Claman said.
Bottled water manufacturers say their product is safer than tap water, but over 40 percent of bottled water contains tap water. The tap water may, then, be purified and have minerals added, according to The Center for a New American Dream, an organization helping Americans consume more responsibly and protect the environment.
“Communities where water is extracted suffer a loss to their own water supplies. Water shortages occur in Texas and the Great Lakes region near bottling plants,” Faux said.
Along with those communities, the environment is suffering from the manufacturing of bottled water, Faux said, and from people not recycling water bottles.
“To manufacture the plastic bottles, it takes 1.5 million barrels of oil per year, which is enough to fuel 100,000 cars for that same year,” Faux said.
To put this into perspective, the entire energy costs of the life cycle of making one water bottle is equivalent, on average, to filling up a quarter of each bottle with oil, according to The Center for a New American Dream.
To add to this, most water bottles have to be transported long distances, Faux said, burning fossil fuels. Almost a quarter of all bottled water has to cross national borders to reach consumers.
Plastic water bottles are only supposed to be used once, Faux said, so four out of five water bottles end up in a landfill.
“Ironically, while in the landfill, these plastic bottles leak toxic additives, such as phthalates, into the groundwater,” Faux said.
Currently only pop bottles with a deposit can be recycled on campus. Faux said there is an effort to help recycle water bottles on campus, but it is problematic due to time and costs.
If a person uses plastic on campus, he or she either has to make a trip to the Waverly Recycling Center, or the plastic adds to the landfill.
EESI is also working on an option to get the city to do some “curb side” recycling on campus.
“This option will take time and we need to hear from students saying they want this and will use it,” Faux said.
Weisert said she would recycle more if it were more convenient.
“If one person or group would come around to each floor or room and collect recycled materials once a week, and bring it to a central location, I would think about recycling more,” Weisert said.
Faux said faculty and staff can also play their part in reducing plastic waste by taking home their plastics and recycling them through their home efforts.
Claman said Wartburg does an OK job with recycling but could do better.
“There are moments when Wartburg does a good job, like the energy challenge,” Claman said. “Not having cups next to fountain pop machines but customers having to ask for a cup is a step in the right direction.”
Faux encouraged students to get involved and to speak up about sustainability issues.
“Tell your senators what you want. Read the sustainability page,and join the
Facebook group. Tell us what you want Wartburg to do,” Faux said.
Faux pushes students to simply do something.
“Make an active change. Make a choice to always refill your clean, reusable, safe bottles and if you forget it, go back and get it,” Faux said.
“Don’t give in to buying a bottle or asking for a plastic glass.”