McKenzie Hamilton
October 24, 2014
UNST 124K
Topic: What initiatives need to be taken into place in order to ban the sale of plastic water
bottles on Portland State University’s campus?
Bahr, Katie. "Go big green." U.S. Catholic Sept. 2013: 21+. General OneFile. Web. 24
Oct. 2014.
In the article by Katie Bahr, a staff writer for the Arlington Catholic Herald, she
goes to say, “an environmental revolution is under way”. Bahr has looked into the
increasing amount of sustainability initiatives being put into place at universities around
the country, one of them being University of Portland and their new ban on the sale of
plastic water bottles on the campus in 2010. With the ban, the Univerisity supplies
reusable water bottles to incoming students in place of having to use plastic non-reusable
ones. The article shows how University of Portland has working towards a clean and
healthy campus for generations to come. With the many sustainability programs and
events, Portland is vastly aware of the growing trend for a healthier city to come.
Gleick, Peter H. "Revolt: The Growing Campaign Against Bottled Water." Bottled and
Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water. N.p.: Island, 2010. N.
pag. Print.
The book Bottled and Sold talks about the world’s obsession with bottled water.
Peter Gleick, the author, agrees there have been drastic measures being put in place to
against the production and sale of plastic water bottles. An example he uses deals with
Google headquarters. When Gleick visited in 2007 for a meeting, everyone had plastic
water bottles. When he later returned in 2009 that all changed. Everyone now had
reusable aluminum bottles that they brought from home. This shows how immense
corporations are realizing the need for change. Many places all around the globe are
putting this initiative into place in banning plastic water bottles.
Greene, Joseph P. Sustainable Plastics: Environmental Assessments of Biobased,
Biodegradable, and Recycled Plastics. N.p.: John Wiley & Sons, 2014. Google
Books. Web. 24 Oct. 2014.
McKenzie Hamilton
October 24, 2014
UNST 124K
Hannah-Jones, Nikole. "Multnomah County Becomes First in Oregon to Ban Bottled
Water from Functions." OregonLive.com. N.p., 14 Oct. 2010. Web. 24 Oct. 2014.
In this article Hannah-Jones seeks to provide information on the consumption,
production and new ban of plastic water bottles in Multnomah County. As the title
describes, Multnomah County became the first to ban plastic water bottle use in all
county meetings and functions; the ban was put in place October 2010. The initiative to
educate people on tap water vs. bottled water has had a tremendous impact on the
surrounding areas; University of Portland has also placed a ban on the sale of bottled
water on their campus. The hope is to inform our communities and ask for there to be a
change the current behavior of using plastic water bottles and instead use some form of
reusable bottle.
Mooney, Brian P. "The Second Green Revolution? Production of Plant-based
Biodegradable Plastics." Biochem. J. (2009) 418, 219–232 - B.P. Mooney - Plantbased Biodegradable Plastics. N.p., 11 Feb. 2009. Web. 24 Oct. 2014.
The short article by Brian Mooney discusses multiple ways that in the near future
we could be producing biodegradable water bottles. This would mean that every bottle
produced would be able to decompose naturally in a landfill. Many tests have been done
and have concluded that any biodegradable bottle will leave no toxic or material waste
after degradation. To have this put in place, the earth could eliminate millions of plastic
water bottles that are left in landfills every year. The article shows many technological
ways of producing biodegradable plastics. If Portland State University could make the
switch to these degradable plastics it would help make a drastic difference in the plastic
waste created on campus.