The Johns Hopkins Sustainability Initiative is trying to eradicate all use of plastic water bottles on campus. The group is currently working towards a proposal to do so. The movement is spearheaded by a group of freshmen. Nationally, only 10 percent of all water bottles used are recycled, causing large amounts of unnecessary waste.
“Our office has been actively working for more than four years to promote the reduction of bottled water use on campus and has helped to successfully eliminate the purchase of 5 gallon water coolers in many departments and the use of bottled water at senior staff meetings and Human Resources trainings among other routine forums,” said Joanna Calabrese who is in charge of the Eco-Reps internship for freshman and is the Sustainability Outreach Associate for the school. “As you know, production, transportation, consumption and disposal of plastic water bottles burns fossil fuels, generates mountains of wastes and taxes our already overburdened public water systems. We are extremely supportive of University efforts that aim to raise awareness about and discourage this environmentally unsustainable practice.”
This project has been initiated by freshmen Zoe Kaiser, Hannah Lindsell and Becky Spellissy, who are currently members of Eco-Reps.
“My interest in the environment started when I took AP Environmental Science as a junior in high school. However, my true passion for the environment developed when I went on an internship with seven other kids from my high school to Kodiak, Alaska. We worked with a non-profit organization called Island Trails Network for three weeks, picking up marine debris off of beaches on uninhabited islands, and building nature trails to prevent erosion. this put what I had learned in the classroom into practice. I was drawn to Hopkins because of the GECS(Global Environmental Change and Sustainability) major. Eco-Reps seemed like the perfect addition,” Lindsell said.
“For Eco-Reps, we’re trying to encourage more students to use reusable water bottles rather than plastic water bottles,” Kaiser said. “During Green Week, we’re going to do a big demonstration with a big pile of all the water bottles in the AMRs and then a second pile that’s the equivalent ration of the water bottles that are actually recycled. We’re going to try to use that as a kick-start to get people thinking about using reusable water bottles.”
Along with Green Week, the three Eco-Reps are currently planning many projects and ideas to help change student behavior towards using reusable water bottles. They want to have coffee shops on campus give students five cents back if they bring their own reusable water bottles.
“Through my position as an Eco-Rep, I have become part of a group which is taking steps toward various projects which intend to both inform students through visuals about the importance of recycling water bottles, and encouraging students to make changes in their life style moving away from water bottles,” said Lindsell.
“Eventually we want to move the campus towards [having] completely no plastic water bottles, but that’s going to take a long time to implement,” said Kaiser.
They also plan to check the drinking fountains in dorms and buildings to make sure that they are all working properly, and are considering getting Hopkins to buy glass water spouts for the water fountains, which would make it easier to fill water bottles up.
However, some students would rather use plastic water bottles than drink tap water.
“A lot of people have a psychological issue with drinking tap water,” Kaiser said. “And a lot of people just don’t trust tap water, so that’s another piece of information we’re going to try to get out. The Baltimore tap water’s really safe, it’s been getting cleaner and cleaner every year and our campus tap water is really safe. I think most people will use a reusable water bottle if they can see the benefits because it’s cheaper in the long run.”
There are currently many places on campus that sell plastic water bottles, such as the Meals in a Minute at Levering and Café Q, which doesn’t even have a faucet for tap water. The President’s office and the Board of Trustees have stopped using plastic water bottles. Eco-Reps’ goal is to try to get the dining services on board.
“If we can just completely eliminate any source of water bottles, than no one will be tempted to take one,” Kaiser said.
