Poland stings our air Outside the Bottle Campaign spills all

Author: Rachael Jenning

You are waltzing out onto the grassy knoll sloping toward the library during a Middlebury reception. Noticing a server skirt by with a gleaming silver platter, you grab some crackers and cheese perched within your reach. Basking in salty deliciousness, you pause and chew.

Feeling thirsty, you wander over to the white-clothed tables and reach for one of a row of Aquafinas. You twist the cap, remove it and lift it to your lips.

Indeed, between vending machines in most dorms and on campus vendors like Midd Xpress, a disposable beverage is often just an arm's reach away. But do you know where that water is coming from?

It probably hails from a public water source, and was purified by reverse osmosis, as Dasani water is. That pure, crisp water is just as pure and crisp as your own tap water. And according to Jen Foth '08 of the Middlebury chapter of the national Think Outside the Bottle Campaign, the only difference between water from a bottle and water from a faucet in America is a matter of price - the price that deflates your wallet, and the price that scars the environment.

Perhaps you've noticed them tabling. As we speak, or rather drink, Think Outside the Bottle campaign is busy striving to reduce the use of bottled water on the Middlebury campus - one effort in a nationwide attempt to eventually eliminate the market all together. This movement derives from Corporate Accountability International (CAI), which demonstrates against irresponsible corporations from General Electric to Big Tobacco.

Foth became involved with CAI this past summer, and later brought the Think Outside the Bottle campaign to the attention of the College's Sunday Night Group (SNG), where it has been warmly received by students.

Foth's ultimate aspiration is to persuade Middlebury to terminate its contract with Aquafina. This goal, which might have seemed unrealistic just a few years ago, now has precedents all over the nation. Just recently, the mayor of San Francisco signed on to the CAI initiative, banning city-funded purchases of bottled water.

The issue of water conservation and the source of drinking water is also pertinent in today's world on a global scale.

America is blessed with what Bryan Walsh of The New York Times has called a "minor miracle"≠ - the gift of safe, clean water. We drink about 8.25 billion gallons a year, and that number is steadily increasing with the emphasis on the health benefits of a water-enriched diet.

Yes, we have the luxury of adding more water to our diet without braving the Saharan heat to reach a clean water source, without going to war for rights to a fresh water oasis, without walking miles just for a few sips of murky, disease-ridden water. More than one billion people in the world do not have safe drinking water, and the U.N. estimates that by 2025, that incredible number could stretch to 5 billion. In America, water flows freely just in our grasp; yet, our society has decided to put a price on it, manufacturing it in designer bottles.

In 2006, wholesale sales of bottled water climbed to a staggering 11 billion dollars, and this number continues to rise, at a predicted rate of ten percent. 1.5 billion tons of oil and 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide go into the production and importation of bottled water, and about 2 billion pounds of the plastic shells wind up in landfills. The costs of shipping water, manufacturing it, and the oil used to produce the plastic are simply staggering.

In the wake of such numbers, Middlebury students aren't the only ones passing the bottle. Other colleges are getting on board as well. Recently, a student from Williams visited the SNG and has since brought the campaign to her campus.

"The awareness is already there," Foth said. "This campaign is needed to focus this awareness."

You can get involved by signing the pledge and informing your friends of CAI's efforts. More importantly, you might want to reconsider the statement you are making with that designer label water bottle≠ - based on these recent initiatives, Nalgenes are about to become a lot more fashionable.

But to truly "think outside the bottle," Foth encourages people to see the campaign as more than just an attack on water manufacturers.

"Look at the greater issues," Foth said. "They are the commoditization of a resource that we all need to survive, and the injustice of having to pay for something that is so essential."