Think Outside the Bottle Campaign Endorsed by Senate

by Dawn Quirk

Tufts Recycles! congratulates the Think Outside the Bottle (TOTB) campaign for writing a resolution that was recently passed by TCU Senate encouraging Tufts administration to spend less university money on bottled water. The resolution suggests supplying filtered tap water at university events as an alternative to selling bottled water, which TOTB maintains weakens public trust of tap water. TOTB also argues that by exploiting water-rich regions, privatized water-bottling companies sap a resource that should remain a public good. Finally, they assert that bottling water has “severe” environmental repercussions both to the regions from which water is taken and to the areas that are supplied with the bottles.While reducing bottled water consumption decreases the volume of bottles being transported and recycled (and hopefully not thrown in the trash bin), alternatives to bottled water should be chosen thoughtfully. TOTB recommends supplying tap water in coolers and (paper) cups for water consumption at campus events. Tufts Recycles! suggests in the absence of reusable options, cups should be made of light-weight paper or recyclable plastic and recycling receptacles should be included at events.

Hopefully this campaign will be one of many to help reduce overall consumption and waste production on campus.