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Take Back the Tap asked the Sustainability Council at its meeting last Thursday to endorse a ban on plastic water bottles on campus.
“We don’t want the University to purchase, sell or distribute single-use water bottles at any University-related activities or events,” said sophomore Andrew Bishop, DU’s Take Back the Tap campus coordinator.
Take Back the Tap is part of the Food & Water Watch, an organization that works to ensure that water, food and fish are sustainably used. According to the initiative, U.S. bottle production requires up to 54 million gallons of oil per year, and three out of four of these bottles end up in landfills or incinerators. In 2011, DU distributed over 96,000 bottles.
Bishop said Denver Water delivers extremely high-quality public tap water, which is safer and more affordable than bottled water.
Hundreds of students have signed a petition to support Take Back the Tap’s initiative, which is now being proposed to five major campus organizations – the Sustainability Council, Sustainability Committee, USG, GSAC and Faculty Senate – for similar endorsement. If the initiative is endorsed, it will be taken to the administration to make it an official policy.
“I would like to get the policy implemented by the end of this academic year, whether it goes into effect in 2014, 2015 or later,” said Bishop.
If the policy is accepted, it will primarily affect admissions, which currently distributes over 15,000 bottles to tour groups every year and campus events like banquets.
Take Back the Tap hopes to distribute mini Nalgenes or compostable cups to tour groups instead and use glasses and tap water at banquets, which the university already has enough cups and water to be equipped for.
Take Back the Tap ordered 2,000 stainless steel Nalgenes last month to be distributed to incoming classes for the next two years. The Nalgenes cost $9,500 in total.
“We want freshmen to have at least one refillable bottle and know that that’s what we’re about here,” said Bishop.
Last year, Take Back the Tap also refurbished the drinking fountains on campus, putting in 12 bottle-filling stations for a total of about $12,000. These stations are now present in every major building on campus as part of a permanent infrastructure reinvestment.
The funds come from the Sustainability Committee, a USG committee that financially endorses Take Back the Tap and other sustainability groups on campus. According to Bishop, Take Back the Tap uses about 10 percent of the Sustainability Committee’s $100,000 budget every year.
“These expenses are an investment in sustainable water,” said Bishop. “Figure that the university spends at least $1 on each of those 96,000 bottles every year. These one-time expenses will pay for themselves in about 10 uses – and chances are, they’ll be used hundreds or thousands of times.”
A member of the DU Environmental Team first proposed a sustainable water sub-committee in January 2011 after the team watched the documentary “Tapped.” Not long after, the committee got in touch with Food and Water Watch, a national organization that is present on dozens of campuses. Food and Water Watch now officially supervises DU’s branch of Take Back the Tap.
“We would really love people’s support,” said Bishop. “We want people to understand the problems with the bottled water system, and we want them to change their habits. But we want them to understand why they’re changing their habits.”
