The sustainability-based registered student organization known as Take Back the Tap at Central Michigan University is not going away anytime soon. As president of the organization this year, I have had the honor and privilege of working with some of the most compassionate, committed and intelligent student activists. Our goal is to phase out the sale of single-use bottled water on CMU’s campus, and we have been working toward this end for more than five years now.

The campaign is orchestrated by the national nonprofit organization, Food & Water Watch, and Take Back the Tap groups can be found on more than 50 campuses across the country.

The CMU specific campaign has made many accomplishments during our time here, including: collecting thousands of petitions signatures from students that support ending the use of single-use water bottles, the Student Government Association passed legislation that supports phasing out single-use water bottles on campus, about 30 faculty members and 15 student groups have signed a letter supporting the mission of our campaign, and we continue to raise awareness about our concerns related to bottled water and other sustainability issues.

We are concerned with several issues related to bottled water and we know as a reader you mostly likely want data to back up our claims, so here’s a taste:

Environmental concerns: The production and transportation of plastic water bottles takes a significant toll on the environment. In fact, more than 17 million barrels of oil are used in bottled water production each year in the United States and over 80 percent of the bottles are not recycled.
Health concerns: The federal government requires much more rigorous and frequent testing of tap water than bottled water and independent tests have found arsenic, microbes, toxic chemicals and other pollutants in bottled water. These thin, plastic bottles release toxic petrochemicals into the water inside them. In fact, 22 percent of the brands tested contain levels of chemical contaminants above state health limits.
Affordability concerns: Bottled water is exponentially more expensive than tap water, costing up to 4,000 times more for the same product.
Social concerns: Bottled water promotes the privatization and exploitation of our common water resources. In privatizing public water resources, bottled water corporations prioritize profits for stockholders and executives rather than the needs of the community.

Due to these problems, the case for the phasing out of the sale of bottled water is a strong one. As Michiganders, we are stewards of 20 percent of the world’s available, fresh surface water. In Mount Pleasant, our drinking water is verifiably clean and safe. There is simply no reason to drink disposable bottled water. “Refills not landfills” is one of our favorite phrases in TBTT, and we advocate for solutions like drinking tap water from a reusable bottle and investing in public water infrastructure like the refill stations found in many of the buildings on campus.

We believe that access to safe, affordable drinking water is a human right that should be protected. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, the administrators that make decisions on the matter refuse to grant our request.

Despite widespread support for our campaign, administrators like Tom Trionfi, director of contracting and purchasing services, and Shaun Holtgreive, executive director for student affairs, believe that bottled water sales are too important to give up. Take Back the Tap at CMU respectfully disagrees, and we can guarantee that we will not stop educating, advocating and agitating until CMU is a bottled water free campus.

TRAVEN MICHAELS

Take Back the Tap President

Petosky