Pictures!
You can see some pictures of our campaign at:
http://news.plu.edu/files-dev/galleries/2009-03-09TBTT/index.html
See the photo contest pics taken by students at:
http://news.plu.edu/files-dev/soundslides/TBTTphotocontest/index
Take Back the Tap
As the first project using funds collected from student green fees (see Renewable Energy Resolution), Take Back the Tap (TBTT) is a project aimed at reducing PLU's bottled water use by 50%.
The Project
To
encourage tap water consumption, we are:
Funding
infrastructure changes:
We have installed new goosenecks on water fountains around campus to make
refilling water bottles easy. Plus, the water is filtered!
Running
an educational campaign: We
have purchased over a thousand Nalgene BPA-free water bottles to sell to
students—who pledge to give up bottled water—for only $1! Students will have
the opportunity to purchase a water bottle beginning the first week of March,
during our Take Back the Tap kick-off week.
Additionally,
throughout the semester, students, faculty, and staff will have opportunities
to learn more about the drawbacks of bottled water through displays and
events. The Facts
Making bottles to meet
Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 17 million barrels of
oil annually, enough to fuel more than 1 million U.S. cars for a year.
Worldwide, some 2.7 million
tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year.
According to the Container
Recycling Institute, 86 percent of plastic water bottles used in the United
States become garbage or litter. Incinerating used bottles produces toxic
byproducts such as chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals.
In 2006, 8.25 billion
gallons of bottled water consumed in the United States. That’s 27.6 gallons per
person.
Since 2002, bottled water
consumption has consistently grown 8%-10% each year.
In 2006, consumers shelled
out almost $11 billion for 8.25 billion gallons of bottled water. That’s an
average of about $1.33 per gallon for bottled water. In Parkland, water costs
less than $0.002 per gallon.
If you pay $1.25 for a
bottle of water, you are paying $8.00 per gallon. That’s over 400 times more
expensive than tap water.
Bottled water is less
regulated than tap water
Tap water is tested more
frequently than bottled water for bacteria, viruses, synthetic organic
chemicals, asbestos and phthalate contamination.
An estimated 25% of bottled
water is actually bottled tap water (Sources: Earth Policy Institute, Food and Water Watch, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Parkland Light and Water)
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