Oakton students win ban on sale of plastic water bottles on campus

In response to a student lobbying effort, the Oakton Community College President's Council recently agreed to support a ban of single-use plastic water bottles on campus, joining colleges across the nation that have taken a similar stance, including Northwestern and Loyola universities.

"This type of transformative experience is illustrative of how an Oakton education ties the classroom to the real world and offers a laboratory to innovate," said President Joianne Smith.

The Students for Social Justice club presented findings at the meeting to support the ban. Club members had gathered 1,150 petition signatures and dozens of letters of support.

Why ban a simple convenience like bottled water?

The question was raised last spring with students in a honors core seminar taught by professors Hollace Graff and Richard Stacewicz. As students learned more about the complicated issues surrounding bottled water, their commitment to the assignment gained momentum, and the class project grew into a campuswide political action to ban sales from vending machines and by the food service.

"We challenged the students to research an environmental issue from many perspectives and to take an ethical position - right or wrong - on their research," said Graff. "The students chose single-use plastic water bottles, something that they were familiar with in everyday life. … The amazing thing was that the students didn't stop when the class was over and graded. Those who didn't graduate last spring saw it through for another year until they had created change on campus."

The teams divided to research the ecological impact of plastics, the human rights issues surrounding water usage, the implications for corporate profits, recycling and landfills. And they researched alternatives.

One group estimated students and staff discard between 1,000 to 2,000 pounds of plastic water bottles per year at the Des Plaines campus alone. Even though most are purchased off-site, students believed a ban would raise awareness of the issues.

"As students, we learn more by combining research with service learning and especially service action," said New Trier graduate Simone Montgomery, co-president of the Students for Social Justice Club. "As we began to make presentations to other clubs on campus, it was extremely gratifying to see how many different students came together to add their voices and support for this project." A student team found studies that only 30 percent of single-use plastic bottles are recycled, meaning the remainder end up in landfills or as litter. The team argued a ban could help to slow the growth of landfill sites like the one just across Central Road from Oakton's Des Plaines campus.

Another team discovered consequences that included a negative economic impact on college students. The team calculated a gallon of bottled water is 2,000 times more expensive than a gallon of tap water. Among findings of other teams was that it takes more than 1,000 years for plastic bottles to break down in a landfill, plastic litter can be devastating to wildlife, manufacturing bottles creates pollutants and greenhouse gasses, plastic may release carcinogens into the water before it is consumed, and the processing and transportation of bottled water consumed 17 million barrels of oil.

"It is sad that we buy a water bottle, drink it, and toss it, without ever considering the results of our actions," said second-year honor student Roxana Berinde, a graduate of Niles West and club co-president. "I was shocked once I began to learn all of the different ways in which a simple convenience like this can have long-lasting negative consequences for people and our environment."

The ban is not unanimously supported. Some students and staff said in interviews that they appreciate the convenience and portability of bottled water. The "ban-the-bottle" group got a grant from the Oakton Educational Foundation to supply alternatives. It has begun to distribute multiuse stainless steel water bottles and will be attempting to raise funds to install more water bottle refill stations. The refill stations cool and filter tap water to create a healthier and more economical alternative to bottled water. The ban is not intended to take effect until the college fulfills its vendor contract obligations.

"While there is still work to do with our vendors and in the college to fully activate this initiative, we … hope that by the start of the fall semester, we will no longer be selling single-use plastic water bottles on campus," Smith said.