Big changes on tap at NIC
A small group of North Idaho College faculty, staff and students is trying to do its part for the planet by launching a new initiative to get people at NIC to begin drinking from reusable polycarbonate water bottles instead of disposable plastic bottles.
The “Take Back the Tap” program will be launched Monday as part of the college’s annual “Popcorn Forum.” This year’s theme is “Earth in Crisis: A Search for Solutions.”
Nationally only two in 10 disposable water bottles are recycled, said Carol Lindsay, chair of the college’s Social and Behavioral Sciences Division and key organizer of the bottle effort.
That statistic got Lindsay thinking: “How do we reduce the amount of plastic water bottles being thrown away at NIC every day?”
The answer? Provide each incoming student, faculty member and staff member with a reusable water bottle next fall.
Lindsay estimates buying the 2,500 bottles would cost about $5,500. Raising that money will be a key part of the Take Back the Tap initiative, as will education.
The group will be launching a Web site to promote the program, said Dean Bennett, who heads up student activities for the college.
“If you look at trash cans across the campus, they’re always filled with water bottles,” Bennett said.
Buying water by the bottle may be more convenient but it doesn’t necessarily taste any better.
Most of the bottles aren’t filled with mountain spring water, Lindsay said. They’re filled with the same municipal water that consumers could get straight from their own tap.
Some cities, including San Francisco, have instituted limited bans on disposable plastic bottles. San Francisco city departments aren’t allowed to buy water in plastic bottles. Other cities are looking at banning the bottles because they create mountains of trash.
Some say that drinking from the bottles regularly can be hazardous to people’s health because the bottles can leach chemicals into the water.
And then there’s the cost. At about a buck apiece or even more, buying water by the bottle is a highly uneconomical way to quench your thirst.
NIC student Jessica DeWitt used to buy a bottle of water each day, spending more than $300 a year on what she could have gotten free from a school drinking fountain or sink. Now DeWitt refills her Nalgene brand bottle and is helping with the Take Back the Tap initiative to encourage others to do the same.
“I think that our society uses water bottles like they’re going out of style,” she said. Besides, “When you buy a water bottle from the store, you’re just getting tap water.”