New refillable and FREE to use water stations have made their way to Shoreline’s campus! Brought to you by Shoreline’s Sustainability and Commuter Options Fee (SCOF) Committee, these refillable water stations are designed to work with sport bottles and are now functional and operating in the FOSS, 1800, 3000, and 2700 buildings. Four more are still to come in the PUB and a few other locations around campus, so look to see those (and benefit from them) later this summer. 

Why the investment in refillable water stations, and why should you use them? According to banthebottle.net:

• Making bottles to meet America’s demand for bottled water uses more than 17 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel 1.3 million cars for a year. And that’s not even including the oil used for transportation.
• The energy we waste using bottled water would be enough to power 190,000 homes.
• Last year, the average American used 167 disposable water bottles, but only recycled 38.
• Americans used about 50 billion plastic water bottles last year. However, the U.S.’s recycling rate for plastic is only 23 percent, which means 38 billion water bottles – more than $1 billion worth of plastic – are wasted each year.
• The recommended eight glasses of water a day, at U.S. tap rates equals about $.49 per year; that same amount of bottled water is about $1,400.
• Antimony, which is found in PET plastic bottles, in small doses can cause dizziness and depression; in larger doses it can cause nausea, vomiting and death.

So do yourself, your wallet and the environment a favor, and trade in those plastic bottles for a reusable bottle and swing by one of our new filling stations today!