Well, sort of.
Sip on this: Did you know that most bottled water is 45% tap water? That’s right, you’re paying for something you can get in your own home and that’s a good thing. According to representative of Environmentalism and Arts, Junior Melissa Freilich, tap water is actually cleaner. It has higher standards for regulation than bottled water. That’s just some of the information Melissa found out while putting together the 2,000 water bottle display for Water Awareness Week.
Water Awareness Week is part of the Environmentalism and the Arts initiative put on by Edison Theatre and the Office of Sustainability. The focus of Environmentalism and the Arts is to use art as a way to promote social change and create understanding about the importance of sustainability. Aside from hosting water taste tests of tap vs bottled water (results showed tasters couldn’t tell the difference, and when they could taste a difference, they preferred tap water taste), a screening of the moving documentary of the water crisis Flow (which is available for rental at Edison Theatre), Melissa and volunteers from the Office of Sustainability put together at 2,000 water bottle display in Mallinckrodt to illustrate the enormity of water bottle consumption in the U.S.
The installation featured 7 giant water bottles entirely made out of water bottles donated from the Missouri Botanical Garden, which is doing a bigger water bottle installation next month. The real challenge? Constructing the installation without using adhesive. “Since we were borrowing the water bottles, we couldn’t use any type of adhesive. It was hard and I was really frustrated, but one of my friends suggested we use rubber bands and it worked!” says Melissa. On top of the giant water bottles Melissa included facts about water usage and water bottle misuse. The facts are frightening: A 2007 study showed a little over 2000 water bottles are consumed by Americans every second.
Makes you re-think the water bottle ban on campus. What does Melissa think of all fuss about Whispers getting rid of the water cups? “It seems to me that people’s awareness of water fountains has plummeted since elementary school. People complain there are no water cups, but there’s water fountains right there.” Good point.