A senior is localizing a national campaign to promote the use of tap water and encourage sustainable practices on campus.
Senior Mia Simonetti brought the Take Back the Tap project to GW last month in an effort to preserve water resources by discouraging the use of bottled water.
“It shouldn’t be privatized or be something only certain people can have.” Simonetti said by next semester, she hopes to register with the Center for Student Engagement and propose a resolution for one of GW’s buildings to install one or two more water refilling stations.
Simonetti said she is working with a team of 10 students who have made it their mission this semester to regulate single-use plastic on campus.
“It needs to happen at college campuses because not only are we learning how to shape what we want to do for the future, but we need to take into account that our future is what’s going to be impacted by all these changes,” she said.
Simonetti said her team has been in touch with several sustainability advisers and managers to articulate the campaign’s goals for the future.
She said she hopes to reach out to and speak with Provost Forrest Maltzman and leaders in the Student Association this academic year.
She said she hopes that working with organizations like Green GW and Campaign GW to co-sponsor events will help the group get more name recognition on campus, and some members of these groups have circulated Take Back the Tap’s petition.
Simonetti added that she hopes to remove plastic water bottles from vending machines on campus, saying that funding for refillable stations on campus could come from reduced spending on contracts with machine vendors for plastic water bottles.
Meghan Glynn, a senior and member of GW’s Take Back the Tap’s marketing and finance teams, said the campaign has the potential to make an impact on students’ and administrators’ plastic bottle usage.