Water bottle update

Hi everyone! Thought I'd provide a brief update with what's happened since our water bottle demonstration on December 10.

Perhaps surprisingly, President Spanier responded within a week in regard to the letter we wrote to him. While his response did not contain the magical statement that he would consider issuing an executive order to ban plastic water bottles, he did put us in touch with people on campus who are interested in working with us to reduce waste on campus.

Just over a week ago, we met with some of these staff members to discuss the water bottle ban. The meeting went well, and we plan to keep up the pressure on President Spanier to be involved in what's going on. There are staff members on campus who want the ban to happen, but unless we keep up pressure on Old Main, this effort could fade into the woodwork. However, many of us are too determined to let this effort fall off the agenda, regardless of the challenges it involves.

I've been in touch with people at Washington University in St. Louis, a university which went water bottle free this semester. I learned that it took a summer and a semester for the ban to be implemented, so I'm optimistic that we can hope for a similar timeframe. I'll post updates again in a month or so, perhaps sooner.

I've also been in contact with individuals working for environmental non-profits who want to help us get water bottles banned at Penn State. It's amazing that from this one article, our cause has been spread to many others who are invested in similar efforts. In great numbers, we can do even greater things!

If anyone has any questions or suggestions, feel free to e-mail 3ECOE@psu.edu.