Tavneet, Antelope High School, Day 25 Water
- What are three reasons to transition from bottled water to filtered tap?
Three reasons a transition from bottled water to filtered tap occurs is the amount of
oil consumption, landfill waste, and money bottled water companies take over. In
terms of oil consumption, there is a large extraction of oil to run the companies to
construct bottled waters (which also contribute
to pollution), and to ship these water bottles to
different countries or migration in the states.
There are many detrimental effects of wasting oil
on such a tactic that will definitely effect the
environment in a long run. If you think about it,
we could save so much oil by just using reusable
water bottle, instead of bottled waters, because
there creation would not be necessary. Oil is a
resource that we are slowly running out if, and it
is used to power many aspects of our daily lives,
so if we reduce the amount of consumption now,
we can save some for later (but lets try to
implement more renewable energy as possible!).
Landfill waste is another issue, because bottled
waters accumulate overtime in these places. As
explained in the video, some of the water bottles
are thrown into landfills for thousands of years,
some are disintegrated to release toxins, and others (which are recycled) are taken
to India and piled high like mountain tops. Landfill consumption overall has an
harsh effect on the environment no matter what it is, and utilizing tap water will
ensure that this does not happen. Finally, there is actually more cost and business
exploitation used by bottled watered companies. They deliver misleading
information for you to buy their product, which convinces the consumer that they
are actually picking the better option. They exploit many resources to create their
products, and many individuals cannot see the detrimental effects they cause, and
are blinded by the fluff they put in their ads. So to save money, switching to filtered
tap water is a much better alternative.
- Take a look in your campus store and dining hall, see what type is being sold
- bottled or tap? What are the brands?
In the Antelope High School campus there is mostly bottled water sold in vending
machines and lunch lines. Brands such as Dasani, Arrowhead, Pure life Nestle, evian
and Crystal Geyser. There is a variation of these brands each day. All of these bottles
have special scenes or labels that provoke the consumer that they are buying bottles
water that are healthy and comes from a healthy place. However, what the students
don’t know is that these water bottles are causing a huge dent in our future
environmental crises. I think if students are more educated about the dent they are
causing in their future, they will start to bring their own reusable water bottles (or
buy the one our club is providing).
Some of the water bottle brands provided by our school.
- What are the steps you might take to ban bottled water on campus?
The most crucial step that anyone can take is teaching, and educating. By teaching
individuals, especially high school teenagers, how much money they are wasting on
buying bottled water on campus, they will realize how much impact they are making
not only to the environment, but to their wallets! It is a super efficient way to
communicate to teenagers, because they can view this in their own perspective. I
believe that showing them the future dilemmas caused by utilizing water bottles
will influence them to take initiative and support banning water bottles. One way
which we have already been working on is utilizing reusable water bottles that have
been customized with our school logo and design (information in below response).
This is an efficient way of conveying an alternative resource and way of serving the
environment, and reduces further consequences of bottled waters.
- Find out whether your school has a contract with the bottled water company
or whether they could integrate hydration stations like many campuses have
already done.
Our school currently has contracted with brands such as Dasani, Arrowhead, Pure
life Nestle and Crystal Geyser, because their water bottles are sold in a vending
machine on our campus. They buy many of the water bottles sold in individual food
lines in bulk. This means that they are obviously contracted by specific brands,
because they only sell the specific brands, rather than a broad range of water
products.
- Is anyone on your campus currently working on such a campaign or has one
already been instituted.
We are way ahead of you here! Our school recently implemented a new reusable
water bottle initiative. The People of the Planet Club worked together to create a
reusable water bottle with our school logo and design on it, to sell to kids to help
conserve the amount of waste caused by bottled water. We are currently pricing our
water bottles at $5 a bottle and we are currently selling them starting next week. We
are trying to ban water bottles in general by implementing this procedure. Students
will be provided an informational video, of how much money they are wasting
buying water bottles, and how they can initiate the launch of a cheaper and safer
alternative. This will alert the students, and have them more interested, because we
can teach those ways that they can save money.
The water bottles look similar to this one, except they have
our school logo and design on them.