When water first started being put into individual bottles back in the day, I can’t honestly say I thought too much about it. It was, in my opinion, a good alternative to Coke and sugary fruit drinks sold in the cold cases at the checkout of grocery stores and a convenient amenity for long road trips.
It was only thanks to my frugal father shaking his head whenever I would buy bottled water, telling me “there’s no difference! The tap is just as good!” that I began to awaken to the more problematic aspects of bottled water. 
I started to notice a lot of water bottles being left about just like Coke cans, as well as too many of them making their way into the trash can rather than the recycling bin. In fact, according to Food and Water Watch, a nonprofit organization committed to protecting natural resources, only 20 percent of water bottles are recycled: The rest end up in the landfills and oceans. 
The bottled water boom of the 1990s and current consumption of more than 50 billion (yes, billion) bottles a year can be largely attributed to one of the most successful marketing campaigns in history. Companies like Coke and Pepsi, who bottle the Dasani and Aquafina brand bottled water, must have had some marketing studs because they effectively convinced America the water coming out of their tap was gross and dirty, and that which came individually packaged in plastic was clean and healthy. All of this despite the fact that the water was all the same.
While it’s not news anymore that bottled water is just filtered tap water that hasn’t been as rigorously tested as municipal water, people are still drinking $35 billion dollars worth of it a year. 
I’ve got no other explanation for this phenomenon other than its convenience. It’s almost as convenient as filling up a stainless steel bottle before you leave the house in the morning, but not quite, which leaves little compelling evidence for why we should be spending money on the same natural resource that we are so fortunate to have available right in our own homes. One in six people worldwide can’t say the same. Nor can they afford to buy food enough to feed their families, let alone water in a bottle. 
The industry is unnecessarily taxing on the environment as well. It’s for this reason that the newly formed student group, the Climate Justice League, has initiated a “Take Back the Tap” campaign here on campus. You may have seen the enormous “water-bottle tree” that was erected at the EMU last Monday, or maybe you even removed one of the bottles from it during its “de-construction” in your own symbolic gesture to take back the tap. 
The Climate Justice League is a group that was formed by ASUO senator Jeremy Blanchard and other student activists to address a need for “targeted, goal-oriented grassroots campaigns that result in changes on campus” Blanchard said. The Take Back the Tap campaign has been aimed at creating awareness about the issue, and was coordinated by Climate Justice League member Anne Ward.
Ward says she mostly just wants to help get the word out that “bottled water is not safer, it’s not healthier, and it’s not good for the environment; it’s actually really wasteful.” She cited a study that found, when added up, the energy used to produce and distribute a single plastic bottle of water is equivalent to filling a third of that same bottle with oil. 
The campaign reached its apex last week at the event, where Climate Justice League members also collected signatures for a petition that was to be presented to the ASUO Senate along with a resolution that would ban student groups and student government from using incidental fee money to purchase bottled water for any events. Both the petition and resolution were a success; the petition received thousands of signatures and the Senate voted to consider the resolution at its meeting last Wednesday evening. A final vote will be held this week to solidify the procedure. 
My favorite part about Climate Justice League’s event and its ongoing campaign is that it addresses consumer choices, and that’s really what this issue comes down to. Companies have made this superfluous product available, but we bit the bait and created a demand for it. 
That’s why any successful campaign will aim at changing or shifting consumer values; which will in turn affect consumer habits and choices rather than simply lambast corporate interests for supplying ecologically irresponsible products. Once we have the information, we can make more informed choices. I therefore applaud the Climate Justice League and its efforts to help everyone on campus be more aware of the impacts of their water consumption choices and offer them a deceptively simple solution — fill up your canteen at the fountain and drink up!
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