Big Red Goes Green

Dear Exonians,

What is your secret food stash? Is it pistachios? Perhaps granola bars or Goldfish crackers? Whatever your preference, this is the stash that fuels you during those late nights and keeps the Exeter machine running. Among these prized possessions, however, lies a silent killer: plastic water bottles. Most people are not aware of the repercussions of using plastic bottles—in fact, many Exonians don’t even know that our campus banned bottled water in 2012. Bottled water tricks millions of Americans into believing it’s fresher than tap water with its branding of pristine springs, but in reality it greatly hurts the Earth—in fact, bottled water is less regulated than the filtered tap water in our fountains.

We do not want to blame anyone for drinking bottled water, but rather to raise awareness about the astonishingly large impact of each plastic bottle. When one carries their bottled water, they drag with them the 17 million barrels of oil annually used to fuel plastic bottle production. By tossing the bottle in the trash, one is committing the Earth to 400-1,000 years of decomposition. During this time, the plastic toxins fully seep into our soil and water while choking millions of marine wildlife. The United States alone uses fifty billion plastic water bottles annually; why do we Exonians still contribute to this problem when we have a safe water supply? In fact, our data shows that 87% of Exonians even prefer tap water. At our blind water-tasting stations in February, 91 of 104 Exonians unknowingly preferred the taste of tap water, although only 63 of them expected they would.

While some, maybe even you, still blindly prefer the taste of bottled water, the Earth certainly doesn’t prefer the taste of your bad habit. When it comes down to it, each sip of water can either sustain our world or help to destroy it. In this time of increasing climate destruction and resource depletion, it is critical that we modify our lifestyle to nurture the Earth that has sustained us for so long. Let’s start with small things, like refilling your water bottle instead of using another plastic one—if we all commit to this, we really can start to change the world.

Yours Truly,

Jolina Dimen, Shelby Quay Ernst, and Grace Gray