 "Photo: Clara Ganey | The Spectator")
Most students in Campion dispose of their used plastic bottles in a recycling bin or trash can. Residents on the tenth floor, however, give them to freshman environmental studies major Chris Olsen.
Olsen is a member of Seattle U's 2009 Ban the Bottle Campaign, a nationwide student-led initiative to stop the sale of bottled water on college campuses and promote sustainable alternatives. Under Olsen's bed, two brown paper grocery bags overflow with used Aquafina bottles. Come Earth Week, he and other members of the campaign plan to display the bottles in the Student Center.
2009 marks Seattle U's second year of participation in Ban the Bottle. Last year there was not enough student and faculty support to facilitate a formal change in the university's contract with Pepsi, the company who supplies Seattle U with Aquafina bottled water, said Seattle U alumni Gretchenrae Callanta, who co-led the campaign last year with fellow alumnus Nick McCarvel.
Callanta said last year the 2008 Ban the Bottle Campaign still ended on a hopeful note.
"We were told there would be a phase out [of bottled water]," she said, "on the condition that this year, 2008-2009, would be a year spent on an educational campaign getting the campus community members to understand the impact of their bottled water use on their health, the environment and their own carbon footprint."
Ron Smith, Seattle U's vice president of finance and business affairs, said the administrators are open to discussing a ban on bottled water.
"I think we are all in support of the educational process and trying to move in that direction," he said.
Junior environmental studies major Cecilia Borges Farfan picks up where Callanta and McCarvel left off last year on the Ban the Bottle effort. Farfan said she is implementing a two-year timeline for the campaign goal her predecessor's established last year: a signed contract with the university outlining a five-year plan to phase out bottled water on campus.
This year, she said, is focused on generating student and faculty support. The campaign will focus on raising awareness surrounding social and environmental issues linked to the bottled water industry.
"The problem with the [2008] campaign was that there wasn't that majority consensus on campus showing enough support for phasing out bottled water," she said. "This year my goal is to create that awareness."
Borges Farfan said most of the 2009 Ban the Bottle events will take place on or around Earth Week, April 20-24. But she added that due to scheduling difficulties, she may have to push some campaign activities back a few days.
Borges Farfan plans to hold a "tap-tasting" table in C-Street where students can compare the tastes of filtered Brita water, tap water and bottled water.
The majority of last year's participants selected filtered Brita water as their favorite. The campaign members did not publish their findings, she said.
"I definitely plan to release the results [of the tap-test], which they didn't do last year," she added. "I think releasing the results will really increase the efficiency of the campaign."
The initiative's lineup of speakers this year includes religion and ecology professor Gary Chamberlain and Philip Thomas, associate professor and chair of Civil and Environmental Studies.
The importance of free, accessible public water systems is one theme Chamberlain plans to address.
"The more people use bottled water, the less likely they are to pay attention to our public water systems," he said. "When it costs $1.50 to buy water, it's an injustice to those who can't afford it; there is a huge discrepancy there."
The main Ban the Bottle display will include 100 used water bottles strung across the Student Center ceiling, accompanied by large drop-down banners. Borges Farfan said she and her fellow campaigners will soon start dumpster diving to gather as many used bottles as they can.
Borges Farfan added student support of the campaign this year will be crucial to persuading the administration to sign a proposal to begin phasing out bottled water next year.
"If the right amount of pressure, knowledge and awareness is applied," she said, "this can be a very successful campaign."
In conjunction with banning plastic bottles, Borges Farfan also hopes to explore alternative ways to provide the university with water.
"I know that we need more options for students to drink water on campus, "she said.
Improving the filtration systems in Seattle U's water fountains and providing students with free water spigots stations offer two potential ways Seattle U could decrease its reliance on bottled water, Borges Farfan said.
Olsen and Borges Farfan also suggested the school provide incoming freshman with a Nalgene water bottle and educate new students about water issues.
"With that incoming knowledge and other things, like spigots," Borges Farfan said, "it would be a very easy transition, and not very costly."
"It would work well alongside the 'Got Mug' campaign," Olsen said.
One of reasons why students buy bottled water, Borges Farfan said, is due to the product's widespread availability.
"I think the main thing is that people place their convenience over the well-being of the earth," she said. "It is a trend that is very American."
Jeff Ball, a senior public affairs major who was involved with the 2008 Ban the Bottle campaign, named another factor contributing to the popularity of bottled water: the public's distrust of water from a public tap or fountain.
"There is this belief that public water systems are dirty; I think that's a big issue," he said. "Really, Washington has some of the cleanest water in the nation. It comes straight from the mountains."
Campaign members said Ban the Bottle is not only an environmental initiative, but a campaign that aligns with Seattle U's pledged commitment to society.
"We all come to this university with the idea of social justice in mind, Borges Farfan said. "Well, this is not only an environmental issue, but a social problem; we're stealing the water of other nations through privatization."
Olsen also said he hoped Ban the Bottle 2009 would illuminate the link between social inequality and water privatization.
"I want to help bring up some of the practices of bottled water companies, that I think, go against Seattle U's mission," he said.
Borges Farfan has confidence Seattle U can give bottled water the boot.
"I think it is probably one of the easiest and most logical campaigns that can be done on campus," she said. "The main thing is that we need pressure put on us."
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