Chartwells will not be selling any bottled water on April 23 from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. as part of the Take Back the Tap program. Sophomore Frederick Carter, working with the Thomas Berry Forum for Ecological Dialogue, brought the initiative to Iona. “It’s to educate people on the social implications of bottled water,” he said. These implications range from the environmental issues of the plastic bottle to the economic ones of the bottling of tap water sources.

“People are unaware,” said Carter. “You see something, it’s individually sealed, you’re immediately going to think it’s better, safer, cleaner, healthier, of higher quality and so on.” Along with the temporary sale ban, there will also be information sessions prior to the event. In addition, on the night of the event, there will be a screening of the documentary Blue Gold, which details the international water crisis. “This is the documentary I saw which first got me interested in this research of water and the water crisis,” said Carter. The screening will be followed by a discussion about the issues surrounding water in the world today.

“It’s a great idea,” said junior Derek Krautkremer.

Other students agree. “I only use reusable bottles anyway,” said senior Jordan Gilruth.

“I think it’s very different…and I hope people start to learn about how much plastic is used and wasted. Hopefully it will spark change,” said freshman Sarah Kondziela.

Chartwells will not be leaving students thirsty, however. During the temporary sale ban on water bottles, they will be providing filtered tap water for students to refill their own bottles with. “Hopefully, people will realize tap water isn’t that bad,” said freshman Ashley Hubaykah.

Take Back the Tap has taken place at other colleges and universities across the country. Many of these programs work to ban the sale of waters bottles on campuses, either in full or partially. The first school to successfully campaign to ban bottled water was Washington University in St. Louis. Other programs worked to increase access to tap water to make it easier for students to use reusable water bottles.

Not everyone, however, was excited about the program. “That’s annoying,” said freshman Megan Traynor. “That’s not okay…I buy five [bottles] a day,” said freshman Chelsea Lindstrom.

Carter is aware of these setbacks. “As much as we’re trying to educate and inform everybody on the issue, we’re not going to reach everyone,” he said. Putting the issue into perspective, Carter said, “In this instance we’re giving up something- we’re giving up a convenience for a couple of hours. There are people who don’t have this convenience, who don’t have this resource at all.”