In honor of Earth Week, Take Back the Tap, an EnviroCo campaign on the Hill, has been working actively to spread awareness about its efforts to remove bottled water from campus. 

“Take Back the Tap is basically a campaign that highlights the economic, social and environmental problems surrounding bottled water. What we’re doing is in line with Colby’s commitment to sustainability:  we’re actually taking back the tap and eliminating bottled water at Colby,” EnviroCo President and environmental studies major Sarah Sorenson ’11 said. 

Take Back the Tap efforts on the Hill have been gradual, Sorenson said. “[The campaign] began my freshman spring. I saw a presentation on bottled water and Take Back the Tap and it kind of really stuck with me. The following year, I was elected as president of EnviroCo. I decided to focus a large portion of the club’s efforts on that campaign.” 

The problem of an excess of bottled water was and continues to be particularly rampant in Maine because Nestle, which owns Poland Spring, has exacerbated the issue for local residents. Nestle goes into small towns and extracts water without public consent, thereby lowering the water table and drying up the wells used by locals. “A lot of locals are really outraged by Nestle coming here. They’ve been working to push [Nestle] out. There’s a bill online trying to help with more public participation in the water extraction rules,” Sorensen said.

The benefits of switching to tap water are clear, Sorenson said. “Production and transportation of bottled water consumes so much energy and oil. In the end, only a fourth [of plastic water bottles] are recycled. About 80 percent [of bottles] go to waste,” Sorenson explained. 

In addition to the environmental benefits, switching to tap water saves consumers a considerable amount of money since bottled water is much more expensive than tap water. There are also health implications; recent studies have shown concern about plastics leeching into water from overheated plastic bottles. Essentially, Sorenson said, “There are a lot of different angles with which you can look; at the end, you bring together the facts [about tap water] and it makes sense.” 

With regards to accusations that tap water is less hygenic than bottled water, Sorenson said, “There are places where tap water isn’t clean, but in the majority of the United States, it is…Waterville’s water, for example, is fine. Tap water is more regulated than bottled water in a lot of ways. If you are concerned about stuff in your tap water, there are ways to filter it.” 

The Athletic Department, the largest collaborate consumer of bottled water on the Hill, consumes over 10,000 plastic bottles a year. The Take Back the Tap campaign has made efforts to curb their plastic bottle consumption. “We’ve been trying to work with them for a couple years now to get a commitment from them,” Sorenson said. “It’s hard because it’s what they’re used to. We want to make sure that the athletic teams are hydrated…With some collaboration and talking we found out that we can give athletes reusable water bottles and have coaches encourage people to bring their water bottles to practice and games. We will be purchasing five-gallon jugs to take to away games.”

Sorenson said that after graduating, she hopes to work on improving environmental policies pertaining to water. “It’s really important,” she said. “Water is everywhere and affects everyone no matter where you’re from.”