THINK OUTSIDE THE BOTTLE: DROP IT

WATER BOTTLES ARE:
BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH
BAD FOR YOUR POCKET
BAD FOR OUR ENVIRONMENT

Ringling Bottle-Free Campus Declaration

As a result of the Ringling 10:10 AQUA WEEK environmental awareness campaign, we, the concerned students of Ringling College of Art and Design declare our desire to ban the sale of water bottles on campus. Our concerns about water bottles are as follows:

1. Detrimental to Health
Most plastic bottles contain toxic chemicals, disease causing agents (sterility, cholera, etc.) and carcinogens (Benzene, BPA, PET), which leak from the plastic containers into the contents (your water) with heat and time.

2. Economically Disadvantageous
Bottled water costs on average are 1,900 times more expensive than tap water (from which it comes from anyway). It takes 6 times the amount of water to produce a water bottle than is in the bottle itself.

3. Socially Irresponsible and Unethical
Water privatization is a global struggle that impacts the lives of millions of people around the world by depriving them of safe drinkable water from their own watershed. Water contamination is killing more people than malaria, AIDS, and civil war combined.

4. Destructive to Environment
The production of water bottles by companies such as Nestle and Coca-Cola deplete our natural water resources by pumping hundreds of gallons a minute out of public watersheds. The over-pumping of our aquifers causes environmental hazards such as sinkholes, soil erosion, ecosystem destruction and desertification. Water bottles pollute all aspects of our environment: air (with its production) and oceans (post consumption). The plastic derived from water bottles degrades water quality, negatively impacting sea creatures and wildlife.

We would like to discontinue the sale of water bottles in the entire food service and vending machines on our campus (Outtakes, Brickham Café and Hammond Commons). We would like to encourage all students, faculty, and staff to take advantage of public water systems, hydration stations, and water fountains around campus. We feel that it is our responsibility as students to do our part in protecting our heath, environment, and economy by choosing to ban water bottles.

“There's enough water for human need, but not for human greed”
– Ghandi

sign this petition to protect our drinking water

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