Students at the University of Maryland have jumped on a nationwide bandwagon to ban bottled water sales on campus, it seems.
The Washington Post reports that student government groups on the College Park campus have yielded to the pressure and now serve tapwater in pitchers at their meetings and events. Other schools around the country also are cutting out on the bottled beverage. According to the Post, Goucher College in Baltimore apparently has gone halfway, removing bottles from dining halls and other campus eateries while still offering them at the bookstore and in vending machines.
The rap against bottled water is waste - that Americans are burning up resources and generating mountains of plastic debris for a drink they could easily get from a faucet or fountain somewhere. Of course, the bottles can be recycled, but many aren't, and there's still the energy consumed producing and transporting them.
But some are suggesting it's not an open-and-shut case. Bottled water helps fight obesity, some say, by offering youthful consumers a more healthful choice than sugar-laden soft drinks in vending machines and at snack bars. That's certainly how the International Bottled Water Association sees it, with a spokesman calling its members' beverage "a healthy, legal product."
There's also the convenience factor - could it be there aren't as many water fountains as there used to be? And some activists worry that making a fuss about bottled water could alienate the public and lose goodwill for action on other environmental issues arguably of greater importance.
What's your take? Time to dump the throwaway drinks, or is this a diversion from bigger problems? Do you drink bottled water, or carry your own?
(Bottled water on sale in Florida supermarket. Photo by Tina Russell, Orlando Sentinel)