On November 28th, I attended an event for Water Watch club. The primary purpose of Water Watch is to strive for environmental conservation through public outreach. This club works alongside students at colleges and universities across the United States to promote tap water over bottled water on their campuses. This project is currently known as Take Back the Tap. Areas known as, “Hydration stations,” are appearing increasingly more around campuses. Hydration stations act to highlight tap water refilling areas positioned around campus so instead of purchasing bottled water, students can instead refill their water bottles with tap water.
More than $100 billion dollars are spent every year on bottled water globally. Bottled water is a drain on the environment as the US public goes through about 50 billion water bottles a year and most of the plastic containers are not recycled. Transporting the bottles also gives off greenhouse gasses that hinder the environment.
At this event, four types of water were placed out in clear containers so that the participants would not be able to tell the difference between brands of water. The four types of water that were placed out on the table included the following: Deer Park, Poland Spring, Fiji, and tap water. We poured each of the unidentified waters into paper cups and were asked to differentiate between brand. Only one member of the club could differentiate between each of the four brands whether it was out of sheer luck or not. The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether or not one is able to taste the difference between tap water and bottled water. This was to prove that there is no obvious incongruity between tap water and any common brand water. This test acted to promote the consumption of tap water benefit the environment.
To show appreciation to all the members that came out to support the event, three groups including Water Watch, ASA, and Commuters on the Go got together for a semi-formal dinner the day after.