THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
ECONOMICS
THE REAL COST OF BOTTLED WATER
Students spend $8 for a gallon of bottled water despite clean, readily available and more energy efficient tap water
BY MARY SORRICK msorrick@kansan.com
Bottled water is the drink of choice for many University of Kansas students, whose purchase of 437,000 bottles of water last year constituted almost a third of all campus beverage sales, said David Mucci, director of Kansas Memorial Unions.
Bottled water has also become a favorite among Americans, who buy 28 billion bottles each year, according
to the Beverage Marketing Corporation.
Research shows that bottled water offers no significant health benefit
Though, amid surging sales, many environmentalists have questioned the logic of bottled water consumption.
that tap water doesn't offer.
HEALTH BENEFITS
Despite this, consumers pay extra to drink water shipped from exotic locations such as Fiji and France.
"We're bottling water far away from where it's purchased, shipping it all over the world and in the process using fossil fuels."
The plastic bottles, once discarded, accumulate in city landfills and leach chemicals into the environment.
Students on campus pay $1.25 for a 20-ounce bottle of Dasani. That translates to $8 per gallon - more than twice as expensive as a gallon of gas. For this hefty price, the bottled water is likely to be just as clean as the municipal tap water Lawrence gets from the Kansas River and Clinton Reservoir.
JEFF SEVERIN Center for Sustainability Director
Though the FDA monitors lead in bottled water more closely than the Environmental Protection Agency monitors tap water, that potential benefit is offset by the presence of fluoride in city water.
According to the food and Drug Administration, federal standards for bottled water are almost identical to those for tap water. As a result, neither one is significantly cleaner than the other.
Fluoride, which improves dental health, gets filtered out of bottled water.
Council also estimates that 25 percent of all bottled water, including Aquafina and Dasani, is municipal water taken directly from a tap and purified again.
The Natural Resources Defense
WATER MILES
Even though Americans can get clean, cheap water from their kitchen faucet, the Earth Policy Institute estimates that a quarter of bottled water bought by consumers is shipped across national
borders.
Jeff Severin, director of the KU Center for Sustainability, said the "water miles" accumulated during the distribution of water from places such as Fiji or France was a big concern.
"We're bottling
Petroleum is used not only to ship water, but to manufacture the bottles as well.
The production of the 28 billion bottles of water Americans buy each year uses 1.1 million barrels of oil and releases one billion pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,
Were boiling water far away from where it's purchased, shipping it all over the world and in the process using fossil fuels," he said.
Of the billions of water bottles Americans buy each year, 80 percent end up in landfills or incinerators, even after getting recycled.
Those bottles could take anywhere between 400 and 1,000 years to degrade, the EPI estimates.
PLASTIC POLLUTION
Simran Sethi, environmental journalist and Lacy C. Haynes visiting professor in the School of Journalism, said that plastic didn't biodegrade like many other materials in landfills, it photodegrades, or breaks down from exposure to light and heat.
Chemicals from photodegraded plastic bottles can leach into the water during storage, Sethi said.
"If you're tasting plastic in your water, you're ingesting plastic," she said.
Chemical leaching into bottled water increases the longer a person reuses a plastic bottle. For this reason, Sethi said it was best to avoid plastic altogether.
"You can get the same convenience with a reusable bottle and not be contributing to environmental problems and health concerns."
BEYOND THE BOTTLE
Severin said one of the best ways to stay hydrated without bottled water was to buy a reusable stainless steel or aluminum bottle and fill it with tap water.
according to the Container Recycling Institute.
"You can get the same convenience with a reusable bottle and not be contributing to environmental problems and health concerns," he said.
JEFF SEVERIN Center for Sustainability Director
Severin also said students could invest in a good water filtration system, such as a water jug or faucet filter if they were worried about contaminants in city water.
contribute to the negative environmental effects of plastic bottles.
Cities such as San Francisco and Ann Arbor, Mich., have already acted on the problem by banning bottled water in city buildings.
At $8 a gallon, bottled water on campus is significantly more expensive than the 24-packs available at grocery stores like HyVee. This water costs about $1.38 per gallon. But those value packs, despite being cheap, still
But Sethi said she thought this may change.
Bans like these have made her optimistic that a change will come, if only one bottle at a time.
Student playwright presents 'Nightmare'
The Buran Theatre Company's production of "Nightmares: An Artful Demonstration of the Sublime" by Adam R. Burnet opens today and runs through the weekend at the Lawrence Arts Center. Admission is free. The play focuses on the art of 18th century painter Henry Fuseli.
》THEATER
FULL STORY PAGE 8A
EDUCATION
Faculty Senate considers standard testing
A new University Senate task force will begin research this month on college-level assessment tests. Dan Bernstein, chair of the task force and director of the Center for Teaching, said he thought the University would implement the recommendation of the task force.
FULL STORY PAGE 4A
》 LAWRENCE
Faculty members join new task force Group aims to protect environment
Two faculty members at the University of Kansan are now in a position to make a difference for the environment. One of them is no stranger to the issue.
FULL STORY PAGE 3A
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© 2008The University Daily Kansan
WRITERS STRIKE ENDS
Hollywood screenwriters and producers finally strike up a deal
FULL AP STORY PAGE 4A
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