MPH urges reusable water bottles

As part of its commitment to encouraging environmentally responsible behavior, Manlius Pebble Hill School this week distributed free, reusable stainless steel water bottles to its entire Lower School – all 183 students in pre-K through fifth grade.

It was the school’s latest step to help reduce the use of disposable plastic bottles. MPH earlier this year announced it would no longer carry bottled water in the Campus Shop or provide it elsewhere on campus. Filtered water coolers, fountains, and filling stations for reusable bottles are located throughout the campus.

Distribution of the reusable water bottles prompted classroom discussions about environmentally responsible behavior and what it means to “go green.” Among other environment-friendly efforts at MPH – many of them student-driven initiatives – are those focused on reducing paper consumption; increasing recycling and composting; encouraging drivers not to idle their cars; increasing the School’s use of “green” cleaning products; seeking more local, organic foods for school lunches; and improving energy efficiency campus-wide.

The MPH Green Committee (a committee of the School’s Board of Trustees) explains why the use of reusable water bottles is being encouraged: “Every day, roughly 140 million disposable plastic bottles end up in landfills. Lined end to end, they would reach from New York to China and back! Producing and transporting bottled water, in addition, uses two thousand times more energy than it takes to produce tap water – and the process of bottling water produces 1.5 million tons of carbon dioxide every year.”

The Green Committee also noted that, “People have indicated that they prefer the taste of tap water over bottled water in four out of five blind taste tests, and tap water is significantly cheaper. The average cost of a single 18 oz. disposable bottle of water is equivalent to the cost of 100 gallons of tap water.”