INKS: Bottled water ban on campus would do little good
They are all over campus, on doors, bulletin boards and vending machines, I’m talking about those Take Back the Tap stickers.
The principles behind Take Back the Tap are simple: the organization claims bottled water is not safer than tap water, it is more expensive and it hurts the environment, so we should remove the option to purchase bottled water from CMU’s campus.
In an interview with Central Michigan Life last semester, Sam Schleich, the TBTT president at CMU, said, “There is no good reason to have bottled water on campus.”
But is this really true? To determine the validity of this statement, the question needs to be asked, “Why do CMU students buy bottled water on campus?”
The answer is not that they prefer buying vending machine water bottles. From a financial standpoint, this does not make sense. Vending machine water costs more than buying a case of bottled water at the grocery store and bringing that to campus.
Most students will only buy bottled water on campus for one of three reasons: they suddenly got thirsty and want water for class, they usually bring bottled water to class but forgot it or they usually bring a reusable bottle of water and forgot that.
So what will happen if CMU eliminates bottled water from its vending machines, and students still get thirsty on campus? On paper, the proposal seems like a good idea; in today’s era of wanting to “go green,” a large portion of students would probably say they would use drinking fountains instead.
But this raises another question: why are you buying a bottle of water now when you can get water for free?
The reason is because students want to be able to drink in class.
Sure, some students will just go to the drinking fountain and get a quick drink. But the majority of the students buying water bottles do not want a “quick drink,” otherwise they would have just gone to the drinking fountain in the first place.
Instead, most students will go to the vending machine and buy a bottled soft drink. This not only leads to plastic bottles still being used, but it leads to students choosing a less healthy beverage option.
During a recent discussion on the elimination of bottled water, a friend of mine put it well: “You still use the damn plastic!”
Instead of eliminating bottled water, which will do little to help the environment, TBTT should advocate for more recycling and help educate students on why recycling is important. This allows for students to decide for themselves whether or not they will purchase bottled water, while still helping the environment.
If bottled water sales are eliminated, would CMU see a reduction in plastic bottles being used? Yes, but for the most part, the drop would not be significant.
It is not the university’s place to restrict what kind of otherwise-legal beverages are offered on campus, and if there is a demand for water, water should be sold.
