In school systems and high schools located in Lexington, Kentucky, students began a
project and partnered with a company called Elkay who produces refillable water stations.
These stations are scattered throughout high schools in Kentucky to reduce the usage of plastic
water bottles. The main goal is to keep the landfills dry of plastic water bottles. The Bluegrass
Youth Sustainability Council that was made up of students from these five high schools in
Lexington, decided that they wanted to undertake a large project at the time, it appears that
partnering with Elkay was the exact project that they needed. The students found that every
second in America, 1,500 plastic water bottles are thrown away which can take anywhere from
450-1,000 years to decompose in a landfill. Clearly these numbers are simply okay which leads
to all of the reasons and sub-arguments in this article. The word of these systems being such
large impact has sparked discussions of expanding these stations to the middle schools in these
school systems.
The initiative for this began when “Elkay, a company that sells water fountains,
contacted the council about the water-refilling stations that the company also makes, and the
idea of putting stations in each high school began to take shape.” This drive and persuasion of
selling their products shows how Elkay is a passionate company for changing the world and felt
that these high schools in Lexington, Kentucky were great targets for their product. It is evident
that this project flourishes at these school systems. The impact of these refillable water stations
seems to be greater than expected and is in fact a jaw dropping amount of water bottles saved.
This article states that “Officials said 3,637 plastic water bottles were refilled in the first week
after the refilling stations were installed at Lexington's five public high schools in early February.
Refill numbers have grown at such a rate that, after a full year, 128,750 fewer nonbiodegradable plastic bottles would be going into area landfills, Fayette Schools officials have
said.” Not only are these schools doing a great service to the planet but the cost and efficiency
that these refillable stations have are saving students and faculty who are using these stations a
lot of money.
With the amount of water bottles saved throughout just these five high schools, it clearly
shows that the main argument and point of this project was achieved. Due to the high numbers
of bottles saved and kept out of landfills this is also leading to middle school students and
“central office employees have said it would be a cool thing for them to have," she said. "It will
be interesting to see where it goes." This is exactly what companies like Elkay love to see. The
potential that these systems can have in Lexington, Kentucky and the planet can continue to
grow and make a huge impact. Another impact that these stations and students have left behind
is the education on how everyone can make an impact on the world and can be leaders. These
students that ran this project did such a great job that the Fayette school superintendent felt to
be inspired and educated by the project. Quite impressive students can inspire adults in high
positions.
This article and the project details proves that our project proposal can flourish at RPI as
well as Troy School Systems. It helps that these students in Lexington received a large grant,
however, if the money is available for RPI to install these systems, then there is no doubt that it
would flourish at this school. If the numbers were as large as expected and the project was
successful at RPI, it would make it a lot easier for the proposal of Troy school systems to install
these Elkay systems. It helps to continuously see that schools using these Elkay systems are
saving the planet, one water bottle at a time.
-Saved 128,750 water bottles
-Discussion of expansion to middle schools
-Educated students and faculty
-Students received a grant
-Elkay provides great technology
"Water Bottle Refilling Stations Already a Success at Fayette High Schools." Kentucky.com.
Accessed November 9, 2015.