How Lasell Can Make a Difference

There are simple ways in our day-to-day lives to help cut down ocean plastic. One way is to avoid a huge offender- plastic water bottles. Lasell College should require students to bring refillable containers for water rather than disposable ones. Banning plastic water bottles can reduce our ocean waste as a whole and set a positive example for other high schools and colleges. Our campus is at a location where it has full access to water supply, so why does our school import it? Tap water is good for our bodies and the environment. It is also a great way for students to save money. Schools across the country have started to benefit from prohibiting plastic bottles.

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There is more harm being done to hydrate oneself from plastic water bottles than there is good, as we have read what chemical from plastic can do to our bodies. The United States has the safest tap water to drink compared to any other country in the world yet we still consume bottled water (Dell’Amore, 2010), so why don’t we take advantage of its easy filtration?

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Us Americans consume 50 billion water bottles in one year (EPA, 2014). Most in which end up in landfills or the ocean. When water bottles go into the ocean they get carried through gyres and accumulate into parts of the Pacific Ocean. It negatively impacts the lives of marine wildlife by threaten hundreds of species from fish to birds (NatGeo, 2018).

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Students would save money being spent on water bottles if they were banned. In 2011, $21.7 billion was spent on water bottles in the country. The cost of tap water is only $0.01 which is 1,000 times cheaper than purchasing a bottle of water (NatGeo). Our taxes in the United States are already going into drinking water for the public, so why not take advantage of using tap water (EPA)? Water bottles that filter tap water are cheaper to buy especially when college students are on budgets.

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Other schools are already taking the step to ban water bottles to reduce their carbon footprint. Loyola University was the first to ban water bottles on their campus in the spring of 2012. They provided 1,000 students and incoming students with a stainless steel refillable water bottle with their schools design on it. All over the campus are 25 refilling stations, which cost $2,000 to install each. Since 2012, the student and faculty have embraced these decisions and could not imagine seeing plastic bottle on the campus again (Chicago tribune). Another school, University or Vermont, was the latest school to ban plastic water bottles after fourteen other colleges in the United States and Canada had made this decision. UVM is partnered with Sodexo services and could be an influence for Lasell College’s Chartwell food service. We can make these changes if it is proposed by a large percent of the human body (UVM). Most students argue that he or she buys bottled water because of its convenience. Lasell has just installed many refillable water bottle stations around campus over the past year that are just as convenient and healthier for the environment and us. If assumed that each student buys one bottle per day, than we would save 1,600 plastic bottlers per day if we made the switch and almost 500,000 per school year. It is not anymore effort to refill a reusable water bottle than it is to drive to the store to purchase a case.

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There are more positive outcomes to banning bottled water than there are negatives. Requiring students to have refillable containers for water can provide many benefits. It is important to take care of us, and the oceans around us, before it is too late. Lasell College should follow other schools that have already made these decisions because it will benefit us greatly.

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https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-11/documents/2014_smmfactsheet_508.pdf

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https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/

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https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/business/selling-bottled-water-thats-better-for-the-planet.html