S.O.S. and ASR seek an end to plastic bottles

Students on campus want to remove plastic water bottles but have faced financial and legal challenges

by Kellie Benn

Students from the Assocation of Student Representatives and Students Organized for Sustainability joined forces this semester to promote the idea of eliminating plastic water bottles on campus in an attempt to reduce waste.

“[Eliminating water bottles] would just be a small step in promoting sustainability on campus, doing our role to be exemplary in the community and working toward a more eco-friendly planet,” said senior Alex Miranda, biology major and ASR student senator. “This could be a great opportunity to show that we’re environmentally conscious.”

Although the planning is still in the preliminary stages, other organizations on campus such as the Sustainability Committee, which consists of both faculty and students, and the Office of Campus Planning and Sustainability have also offered their support for the idea.

“The goal of my office is to minimize waste, so getting rid of water bottles would definitely go a long way toward that because, by far, the majority of our plastic waste stream is drink bottles, and I imagine a large percentage of that are water bottles,” said Sharon Curry, coordinator of sustainability for the Office of Campus Planning and Sustainability.

The ultimate goal is to convince Aramark to stop selling plastic water bottles altogether, but first students must be provided with an alternative to purchasing water bottles. The first step in the process will be to retrofit water fountains on campus with water bottle refilling stations known as “hydration stations.”

While Curry, who is working closely with S.O.S. on this issue, plans to address the need for funding these hydration stations in her budget proposal for next fiscal year, she says cost is significant.

Curry estimates that the piece needed to alter the water fountains will cost a minimum of $500, which does not include installation. S.O.S. has pinpointed 10 water fountains which should be furnished with the hydration stations as a starting point, but Curry envisions eventually providing hydration stations everywhere on campus.

“Ideally I’d like to see one in each residence hall, and that’s 16 right there plus throughout the academic buildings, so that’s a whole lot more than 10,” Curry said.

This is not the first time that the idea of eliminating water bottles has been brought up by S.O.S. There was a big push last year to start the process of retrofitting water fountains and eliminating water bottles, but it was brought to a standstill when it was not included in Facility Services’ budget proposal due to missing information. According to Curry, S.O.S. did not get the locations of where they wanted the water refilling stations to her in time to include it in the budget proposal last year.

Katie Banick, vice president of S.O.O, recalls that cutting back on bottles is not a new topic of discussion at Trinity.

“We have certainly discussed the idea of trying to get rid of water bottles before. I remember it being brought up last year, especially because first of all, water bottles are not environmentally friendly at all,” Banick said.

Those involved with the initiative admit that it will be a long and difficult process, and receiving funding for retrofitting the water stations is only the first step. There are also some other difficulties to eliminating water bottles that will need to be overcome in order to make it a viable, sustainable option.

In particular, both Banick and Curry cite the demand for bottled water as a barrier to the successful implementation of the program. Aramark profits from selling bottled water because there is a demand for it.

“My concern…is that banning water bottles doesn’t stop the demand for water bottles. Aramark wouldn’t sell bottled water if there wasn’t a demand for bottled water, so the easiest way to get bottled water off the campus is to simply stop buying it,” Curry said. “I don’t know if banning it just means people would go to the nearest grocery store to purchase bottled water.”

In addition, Aramark has a contract with Coca-Cola to provide bottled water, and this contract will need to run out before the elimination of all water bottles for purchase on campus can be achieved.
Banick also thinks that student perception and lack of awareness contributes to more waste than necessary on campus and may create an obstacle to installing the hydration stations if students are not willing to use them.

“What I’m trying to do is push for more student awareness and kind of educate students as to why we want to get rid of water bottles and why they’re so bad,” Banick said. “In some respects, they’re very nice, they’re convenient; you just pick one up and go, you don’t have to think about, ‘Oh is this clean?’ or anything like that. I can understand why there’s a demand, but there are alternatives which I think are much better, especially on Trinity’s campus.”