This past week has been Plymouth State University’s Annual Water Week. Events were held to spread the word about how our society uses and abuses water, as well as the importance of the containers we carry it in.
This past week Mon., Apr. 8 through Fri., Apr. 12 there have been tables and events throughout the HUB, promoting water awareness, and the positives of reusing bottled water, and promoting recycling.
The local groups Common Ground, the Office of Environmental Sustainability (OES), and Ending Genocide Around the World (EGAW) have put in a tremendous amount of effort to organize each of the events and displays that have been on campus this week. Representatives from these groups have been tabling in the HUB all week showing an interesting variety of displays that are definitely worth taking a moment to see.
A gigantic water bottle display has been placed in the middle of the Alumni Green all week. It is a representation of the amount plastic water bottles that PSU students waste each week, roughly 2,800 water bottles.
“I think that the display in front of the HUB is a good demonstration of how wasteful we are and our society needs a better understanding of just how much we are wasting,” said senior Kara Ryan.
On Wednesday, while tabling in the HUB, senior Zach Goldenberg spoke about water week and some of the events. He promoted the film screening, “Water on the Table” that was shown in the HUB Hage room. The movie featured water rights activist & author, Maude Barlow, and her viewpoints on water and human rights.
The film also was about the creation of landfills in America. According to the sign in front of the water bottle display, roughly 80 percent of plastic water bottles end up burned or in landfills.
“Although landfills are meant to be environmentally safe, they often aren’t and the film is a great demonstration of how it all works, ” said Goldenberg.
The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals group
(PETA) held the exhibit “Glass Walls Tour about Factory Farming”, which took place outside of the HUB on Friday, and demonstrated how factory farms work.
The local groups Common Ground, OES, and EGAW are working on removing bottled water from campus. “For the most part everyone has been very supportive of the idea, it’s a really good thing,” said Janelle Emerson.
On the other hand there are some students that disagree with the idea of the removal of water bottles in vending machines, “I feel more comfortable drinking bottled water, knowing that it’s a hundred purified and readily available in vending machines,” said sophomore Katlyn Hall.
There is a petition that is circulating around campus to ban water bottle sales through vending machines on campus. If you are looking for a reusable water bottle, contact Common Ground, they are selling them for $5 each.
Water week demonstrated the abuse of water bottles, and the positive alternatives. The activist groups hoped that students, faculty, and community members saw something that made them think twice about using water bottles, recycling, and had an effect on them.
The goal of Water Week was to raise awareness of PSU’s water consumption, as well as human rights issues related to water clean water access. Water Week encouraged the use of tap water and misuse of bottled water, and water in general. Everyone was encouraged to buy reusable water bottles and start filling them at water fountains to help the environment, so “tap out, and bottle up.”