Background History/Introduction
Since
the commencement of human history, people have explored various conditions to
accomplish getting fresh drinking water from its source to their settlements. In
ancient India they filtered water
through a mixture of hot sand, gravel and charcoal (Quench, 2012)
exposed water to sunlight, and boiling and/or straining it to improve water
safety (Water, 2000) . In Egypt and China they put alum
into tubs of water to purify it (Quench, 2012).
In 400 BCE, Hippocrates a Greek physician, known as the
"father of medicine" supported the claim that good quality water is
needed to maintain a healthy lifestyle and he suggested boiling and filtering water.
Hippocrates invented device for filtering water through a cloth bag that he
called the Hippocrates Sleeve. Hippocrates was the first person to actively start
to study drinking water treatment (Quench, 2012).
In 312 BCE, during the Roman Empire, aqueducts traveled 50-60 miles or
more to reach the civilization. They were designed, labored and built for the
purpose of bringing and distributing clean water to the Roman people. Once the
water reached the city it flowed into a main tank called a castellum. Then the
water could go to public fountains, baths, and to some private homes (Discover, 2013) .
In late 18th century Europe personal hygiene became more
important because of its healing properties. Mineral water was sold in
stoneware jars. This was the catalyst that started the water bottle movement in
Europe that eventually made it way to the United States (Admin, 2012) .
In the 19th century when it was discovered that diseases
such as cholera, typhoid and hepatitis, were spread through the unfiltered
drinking water supply large-scale water treatment became more necessary (Quench,
2012). In
the 1800's the American Frontier was settled and the settlers as well as the
American Indians recognized that life was sustained by fresh, non-contaminated
water sources. It was not until over hundred years later that the first water
quality standards for drinking water were developed by the federal government
in the United States. In 1972, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, also known as the
Clean Water Act, was signed into law. This law regulates
the discharge of pollutants into the water. Since then the Clean Water Act has improved the health of
rivers, lakes, and the ocean by stopping billions of pounds of pollution and
increased the number of clean waterways (Moyers, 2012) .
Love Canal, a site just over 100 miles
from our homes, in Buffalo, NY was discovered to have been a dump site for
chemical wastes. It was leaking into the local drinking water supply causing
multiple cancer outbreaks. In 1892, Love Canal was named after William T. Love.
He wanted to connect
the upper and lower Niagara Rivers by digging a seven mile canal between
them. He only got part way into the project when an economic downturn
occurred making him lose his investors’ money. He went bankrupt and the project
was abandoned. The canal gradually filled with water and for the next twenty
years became a recreational spot for swimmers and ice skaters. But in the
1920’s the city of Niagara Falls began using it as a municipal dump site. Love
Canal is less than five miles from Niagara Falls (Logan, 2012) .
As the government and
American people attempted to regulate waste and contamination into drinking
water sources some companies searched for ways to move water. But after the
plastic revolution in the mid-20th century, plastic became the more mainstream
option. This was due to the low cost of manufacturing the material. In the
beginning, bottled water was mainly sold as a healing drink only the wealthy
could afford (Admin, 2012) .
Soon thereafter, more nontraditional companies began selling water in bottles
for convenience and portability. The trend of carrying and consuming water
bottles has become increasingly popular in recent years (Tyson, 2012).
Approximately 50 BILLION
plastic water bottles end up in U.S. landfills each year! This number breaks
down to 140 MILLION EACH DAY! This is enough, laid end to end, to reach China
and back every day (Bottled Water , 2008) . The plastic waste
issue is not exclusive to the United States; it has become a world-wide
problem. One of the most serious threats to our oceans is plastic pollution.
Plastic constitutes approximately 90% of all trash floating on the ocean’s surface.
Unlike other types of trash, plastic does not biodegrade; it photo-degrades,
breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces but never really disappearing.
These plastic pieces are eaten by marine life, wash up on beaches, and break
down into microscopic plastic dust. Plastic
poses a significant threat to the health of sea creatures. Over 100,000 marine
mammals die each year from ingesting or becoming entangled in plastic. Even if
we stopped using plastics today, it will remain with us for many generations (Fairbrother, 2012) . The North Pacific
Gyre, off the coast of California, is home to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch,
the largest ocean garbage site in the world. The floating mass of plastic is
twice the size of Texas. This mass of garbage is growing bigger every day (Fairbrother, 2012) . There is another
patch of garbage more than three times the size of California in the ocean too (Good, 2010) .
There are many advantages
to bottled water. It serves as a quick, easy way to get water. But is bottled
water really better for people than tap? The quality of bottled water
depends on the bottling company (Johnson, 2012). Nearly 25% of bottled water
sold in the United States originated from a ground water source. A study was
conducted from 2004-2008 by the National Resources Defense Council. It concluded
there is no assurance that just because water comes out of a bottle it is any
cleaner or safer than water from the tap (Tyson, 2012).
Tap water costs on
average about ten cents a day in an American home. This cost approximately $36
per year. Bottled water can cost an American home approximately $1.57 per day costing
$493.20 per year on average. This number can vary depending on what type of
bottled water people buy. Bottled water can cost as much as 10,000 times the
cost of tap water. Imagine spending $10,000 for a sandwich (Johnson, 2012)?
Bottled water companies
use many tactics to make Americans believe that bottled water is more desirable
than tap. The water bottle companies need to scare a person into believing that
without their product they cannot drink water. A water bottle company used
Cleveland, OH as an ad for Fiji water. After the advertisement was printed they
decided to run some tests on Fiji water quality. When compared to tap Figi
water had 6.31 micrograms of arsenic per liter.
This bottled water is lower quality, loses big on taste tests, and costs so
much more money (Press, 2006) .
Bottled
water can be cleaner than tap sometimes but bottled water has fewer regulations
than tap water. In one week Americans buy ½ billion bottles of bottled water.
This is enough to circle the Earth more than five times. The companies will seduce
us by showing bottles with pictures of pristine nature and mountains to make it
look higher quality. But one third of all bottled water is just flittered tap
water (Leonard, 2010) . Some water bottle
manufactures attempted to ease customers' minds about the backlash by saying
that their products are extra purified, vitamin-enriched or all natural (Tyson,
2013).
Concerns arose about whether chemicals held
inside of the plastic affected the contents. A chemical known as BPA or
Bisphenol-A is found in some water bottles. This chemical has been linked to
health problems such as cancer. Now some bottled water and plastic companies
are promoting their containers as BPA-free (Tyson, 2013).
The
Earth Policy Institute estimates that making plastic bottles takes more than
1.5 million barrels of oil per year. This is enough oil to fuel 100,000 cars
for a year (Franklin, 2006 ) . 80% of plastic bottles end up in
landfills or incinerators causing more pollution (Franklin, 2006 ) . Water bottles are made
from PET or polyester, which is the most common plastic used for containers
that are designed to be discarded. Once someone has recycled a plastic drinking
bottle the crushed bottles are sent to a factory compressed, formed into bales,
and presented for sale to recycling companies. The waste left over is frayed
into minute fragments, and can be put into the production to make items such as
carpets, clothing, and pillows (PET: A Sustainable Path for
Plastic, 2013) .
In
1971, legislation known as the Bottle Bill became law. The Bottle Bill allows
for each water bottle container to be valued at a 5 to 10 cent refundable
deposit. This law was an attempt by the
American
government to ensure a higher rate of recycling. Bottle Bills conserve energy
and natural resources, create new businesses and jobs, reduce waste disposal
costs and reduce litter that end up in the landfills every year. We conduce 40-60% of all litter in the
United States with drinking beverage bottles alone. Every time that we recycle
a water bottle we are actively helping to reduce the energy needed to produce
new containers. Since the enactment of the Bottle Bill it is disturbing to
think that there are only 10 states have signed the Bottle Bill into law. They
are California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan,
Oregon, Vermont and our own State of New York (Bottle Bill, 2007)
At
Hamilton College in Clinton, NY I was privileged to hear Al Gore speak. His
talk about the environment and the damage that each of us are doing to mother
earth inspired me to become more informed about the world's clean water issues
and how each of us contribute to the destruction of it every day. Soon our
future children will ask themselves "What were our parents thinking? Why
didn't they realize that they are part of the problem and get up and do
something about it when they had a chance?” said Al Gore. So next time you
drink water from a plastic bottle think before you drink.
Bottled
Water versus Tap Water Regulations
For
many years the EPA has been testing and setting standards for tap water. Once
bottled water started to be produced there arose a major question, should the
EPA test and regulate bottled
water or should the FDA
regulate it because it is produced and bottled. The FDA won since it is similar
to other products the FDA also regulates. According to the FDA, they have
strict standards of quality, identity, and good manufacturing practices for the
bottled water industry (Anon, 2002). The FDA does not require the source of the
water to be listed on the bottle (Olson, 2013) .
The FDA allows for trace amount of the following bacterial and microbes, while
the EPA has a zero tolerance. Only seven states have regulations that are even
close to that of the EPA. Montana, New York, Maine, California, Alaska, South
Carolina and Texas have regulations that are more than the FDA requires. (Olson, 2013)
Back
in 1990 there was growing concern about the safety of bottled water when
reports came out about Perrier having been found to contain benzene. The FDA
said they would adopt new contaminant standards that met or exceeded those of
the EPA for tap water, but has never fulfilled that promise to this day. In 1996
the Safe Drinking Water Act modified the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act
to force the FDA to set their own equal or higher contaminants standards. In
the last 10 years the FDA has adjusted their regulations to come closer to that
of tap water, but there remains a very large loophole that has yet to be fixed.
Some of the current standards are listed in the following table (Olson, 2013) .
Containment
|
EPA Health Goal
|
EPA Tap Standard
|
FDA Bottled
Water Standard
|
Bottled Water
vs. Tap Water Standard
|
E.Coli
|
0
|
No confirmed
samples of E. Coli or fecal coliform allowed
|
Up to 1 of 10
bottles tested may contain specified levels of any type of Coliform, subject
to conditions
|
BW Weaker
|
Asbestos
|
7
|
7
|
No Standard
|
BW Weaker
|
Benzene
|
0
|
5
|
5
|
Same
|
Lead
|
0
|
Treatment
Technique
|
5
|
BW Stricter
|
(Olson,
2013)
The
glaring loophole is between two terms: interstate and intrastate. The FDA
regulations apply to the interstate, but the intrastate products need to be
regulated by each state. An estimated 60– 70% of the bottled water sold in the
United States is sold in intrastate
commerce meaning it is bottled and sold in the same state. FDA bottled water regulations
apply only to water that is in, or shipped by interstate commerce. This leaves the government regulation of
the water, if any, to state governments (Olson, 2013) .
If
the product is declared as water, carbonated water, disinfected water, filtered
water, seltzer water, soda water, sparkling water, or tonic water, it is not considered bottled water by FDA.
A few states have decided this is not acceptable and have started to introduce
their own regulation on what is bottled water (cite).
Laboratory
tests conducted at one of the country’s leading water quality laboratories
found that 10 popular brands of bottled water, purchased from grocery stores
and other retailers in nine states and the District of Columbia, contained 38
chemical pollutants altogether, with an average of eight contaminants in each
brand. In the Sam's Choice and Acadia brands levels of some chemicals exceeded
the legal limits in California as well as industry-sponsored voluntary safety
standards. Four brands were also contaminated with bacteria. More than one third of the chemicals
found are not regulated. (Olga Naidenko, Nneka Leiba, Renee Sharp, & Jane Houlihan, 2008)
Study 2008 - (Olga Naidenko, Nneka Leiba, Renee Sharp, & Jane
Houlihan, 2008)
Solutions
and Results
Proposal 1:
In
an attempt to decrease the under recycling waste of plastic bottles on the
Alfred State Campus, attacking the problem as a whole seems to be the most
substantial step in ending the problem. To do this we propose that plastic
bottles be completely outlawed for sale on the campus. How we would do this and
still supply drinking water to the students? Fountain machines are the most
adequate substitution. The college gives out reusable tin bottles to every
student during welcome
week.
Students would be mandated to keep these and use them at fill stations. Vending
machines should be replaced by these fill stations at all current vending
machine locations.
An
average vending machine costs $3,600 and profits approximately $25 per month, a
yearly profit of $300 (Frequently Asked Questions, 2013) . The average
American uses 167 plastic water bottles. Around 3500 students attend Alfred
State College, which means the school as a whole, on average, uses 584,500
plastic bottles in one year (Fishman, 2007) . If there were to be no access to water
bottles on campus and fountain drink stations installed, nearly all of these
bottles would not be absorbed by landfills. The only source of plastic bottles
on campus would come from students who have bought and purchased water bottles
off campus and thrown away.
The cost associated with fountain drink
stations is on average $2,000 per unit, considerably less than that of vending
machines (Soda
Fountain Systems, n.d.) . The other cost associated with this
would be to install a card swipe station at the fill station. The student could
then be able to choose to charge CSA or dining dollars from each particular
dispenser. These card swipes can usually be installed to units for no additional
charge (Frequently Asked Questions, 2013) . The largest problem
associated with this proposal is startup cost. Although the units are cheaper,
they would have to be purchased, and the current machines sold. There are currently
around 30 vending machines on campus, so assuming $2,000 per new unit, the
startup cost would be $60,000 and cut the waste approximately 584,500 bottles
per year.
Proposal 2:
The
installation of an incentive plan should be implemented. The proposal involves
adding card swipe stations to water fountains. Each time a student would want
to fill a water bottle it would record how much water was used, and how many plastic
water bottles were saved from being added to landfills. For every 100 water
bottles saved it would add one point to the buildings Pioneer Cup points.
Additionally, for every bottle saved, 5 cents could be added to the dining
dollars or the choice to withdraw the money. By providing the incentive, more
people will be inclined to partake in the plan. As the article by Visusi,
Huber, and Bell states “deposit systems are particularly well suited to
promoting recycling because the financial reward is explicitly linked to
whether or not the bottle is returned for recycling”(Visusi,193). They
determined, that over their full sample, 6.4 out 10 bottles were returned when
a deposit was placed on the bottle. By not even requiring the actual return of
the bottle, and instead just giving an incentive to fill a water bottle the
amount of water bottles used would decline. This would also be a relatively low
cost to execute. A small card reader is only about $20. So if there are about
100 water fountains on campus, the total would only be around $2,000. This
allows a larger amount of the budget to be placed in refunding the students.
This plan is cheap, easy, and effective. This is a perfect plan for promoting a
green campus while not breaking the bank.
Conclusion
The
problems caused by over use of bottled water, and poor recycling techniques
have without a doubt been bad for the environment. There needs to be proactive
management solutions to
improve
recycling, and implement alternatives to bottled water. The proposals given
above should be quick, cheap, and easy ideas to help combat this problem.
Works
Cited
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