Student Senate’s Sustainability committee has launched a campaign based around Sinky, a talking cartoon sink, to encourage students to try out alternatives to drinking water out of plastic bottles.
Senior Rachel Watson initially made up the character as well as the slogan “Drink from the Sink” as a joke in a sustainability committee meeting last school year.
While Sinky was conceived as a joke, Edelmuth explained the serious issue behind the campaign of getting students to turn away from creating additional waste via single-use plastic bottles.
“The development of plastic is just not really great for the environment and when there are so many other alternatives like using reusable water bottles.” While the need for Knox to use less plastic water bottles in locations like the Grab-N-Go has been discussed by the sustainability committee, Director of Sustainability Debbie Steinberg explained that it was necessary to start with encouraging changes in behavior.
“Before we can stop people from buying bottled water, we need to teach them that there’s an alternative,” Steinberg said.
“Some of the countries they come from cannot drink from the sink,” Edelmuth said.
“I have a friend who in particular once he came here, I was filling my cup from the bathroom sink and drinking it and he tried to whack it out of my hand.” Edelmuth and Steinberg both affirmed that the water quality of the school’s sinks has been tested and assured to be safe.
“They like the plastic water bottle taste, which is actually caused by a chemical they intentionally put in plastic water bottles,” Edelmuth said.
While the Sinky campaign has been of zero financial cost, the Sustainability Committee is considering future projects such as attempting to distribute reusable water bottles out to the incoming freshman.
While this idea is just in the early stages of consideration, the committee is currently looking for potential companies to purchase the reusable bottles from.

Microplastics are now found in essential drinking water sources.
Plastic pollution is finally receiving the attention it needs.
Scientists are carrying an increasing number of studies, while the general public gets access to information on the subject more than ever before.
These have recently been found pretty much everywhere scientists have looked.
I guess, it was just a matter of time before these dangerous pollutants reached one of our main sources of life- drinking water.
These particular type of aquifers are known for their highly porous geology.
This makes it very easy for surface water to penetrate.
What is more important to note here, however, is that such groundwater sources account for about a quarter of the entire supply of drinking water on a global scale.
The team collected and analyzed seventeen samples.
In the mean time, let’s all focus on raising awareness, and reducing the use of plastics as much as we can.

While all of that sounds promising for creating the circular economy that everyone wants as a solution to plastic waste, how do we get these discarded, single-use items—particularly water bottles—into a value stream that captures the benefits and value of plastic waste and creates greater usefulness?
Bottled water is big business While bottled water is in for consumers, plastic water bottles are out, according to numerous news reports that say consumers are becoming more concerned about the plethora of water bottles floating around in the ocean.
A 2017 survey of the European PET recycling industry, released on Dec. 19, 2018, shows that 58.2% of PET bottles were collected out of 3,308,300 tons of PET bottles placed on the European market in 2018.
Paying consumers to return their plastic water bottles to the store might work as an incentive to consumers.
Don’t make as much single-use plastic stuff like water bottles that end up as waste in the environment, they say.
Even if all plastic packaging is recyclable, humans must take the responsibility to get the recyclable plastic packaging into the proper waste stream to ensure that it is recycled.
“While PET recovery has seen an uptick in patent filings in 2016, it is clear there is no real trend in search queries, which may indicate an industry that is innovating at pace,” said PatSnap.
The European PET Recycling Survey 2017 noted that other problems also interfere with the recyclability of PET, including the quality of the material.
It’s one thing to say that “more collection and better sorting” will provide a solution to ridding the environment of plastic waste and putting more recyclate into the resin stream (rPET in particular), but getting the PET bottles and other single-use packaging waste into the recycling stream remains the most difficult part of achieving these goals.
However, that must be easy and convenient, which might mean moving toward alternatives to sorting and cleaning the collected plastic waste which is not very energy efficient or “green.” Recycling alternatives According to IHS Markit, “only about 4% of the plastic packaging used globally is ultimately delivered to recycling plants, while a third is left in various ecosystems, and 40% ends up in landfill.” The challenge, as noted above, involves humans and their handling of the single-use plastic bottles and other containers once the product has been consumed.

Their aim was to see if a new initiative to enlist businesses where people can refill empty bottles with tap water was making a dent in the trash littering the pavement, says marine biologist Heather Koldewey, who oversaw the research.
In the long run scientists need to devise ways to break plastic down into its most basic units, which can be rebuilt into new plastics or other materials.
Because they are used for convenience, not necessity, they are easier to do without, and the polymers used to make them are among the most commonly produced and found in the environment.
Koldewey’s own campaign to reduce the use of bottled water in London, called #OneLess, studied possible locations for placing refilling kiosks that would get the most use, such as public transportation hubs.
But plastic, including some of the same polymers found in single-use packaging, is also used in construction, electronics and fabrics.
One key aspect of improving recycling, some experts say, is designing products so they are easier to recycle.
Curtailing the use of plastic and improving recycling and waste systems would put a major dent in the plastics entering the environment, but not every plastic is easily recyclable and some will still likely make their way into rivers, soil and seas.
In the long term some scientists think changing the very nature of the material and the methods of recycling it could be the ultimate solution to the plastic problem.
For years materials scientists have been trying to create plastics that will biodegrade.
Such a method would take a PET bottle, for example, and break it down into its most basic molecules, separating out added chemicals to provide the building blocks to remake virgin polymers.

There remains a lot we don’t know about the whereabouts of the all the plastic waste that washes into the ocean each year, but scientists are continuing to discover bits and pieces in increasingly concerning places.
The latest study in this area has uncovered evidence of plastic waste in the stomachs of sea turtles hailing from all corners of the globe, shedding new light on the far-reaching implications of our plastic pollution problem.
Though there are advanced distribution maps and other tracking tools in development, we currently have no way of knowing where most of it ends up.
But there are some undesirable places we know microplastics do exist, and the list keeps on growing.
This year alone scientists have found various microplastics in human stools all over the world and packed into Arctic sea ice in huge abundance.
The concern is that we don’t really know what effect the ingestion of plastics can have on living creatures, because our understanding of the reactions between its chemicals and those organisms is very limited.
To that end, the World Health Organization launched a health review earlier this year to try and fill the gaps.
Which brings us to the turtles.
Researchers from the University of Exeter and Plymouth Marine Laboratory carried out autopsies on 102 turtles from the Pacific, Mediterranean and the Atlantic oceans, covering all seven species.
They found microplastics in every single one, with the most common type being the fibers uses in clothes, cigarette filters and fishing nets.

The bottled water industry is seeing a downturn, reports The Wall Street Journal.
As consumers become more mindful about use of single-use plastic items like straws and utensils, single-serving water bottles have also dropped in popularity: “A consumer backlash against disposable plastic plus new government mandates and bans in places such as zoos and department stores have the world’s biggest bottled-water makers scrambling to find alternatives.” Earlier this year, Evian pledged to switch to an all-recycled bottle by 2025, up from its current status of 30 percent.
But that capability, WSJ notes, is not really there yet: “There’s a big problem.
The industry has tried and failed for years to make a better bottle.” Recycled supplies of clean, clear plastic remain scarce.
The industry previously saw amazing growth of 284 percent between 1984 and 2017, as bottled water surged in popularity.
Single-serving bottles still make up two-thirds of U.S. sales.
But images of overflowing landfills and ocean pollution have lessened consumers’ appetite for the convenience of those bottles, leading many to finally invest in a reusable daily water bottle: “Nestlé SA, the world’s biggest bottled-water maker, in October said its bottled-water volumes for the first nine months of the year declined 0.2 percent.” Many places—like some offices, zoos, and parks—have stopped selling bottled water altogether.
Some companies are turning to boxed water, or glass, in an attempt to get over the plastic hump.
Others are still desperately trying to make an environmentally viable, fully recyclable plastic bottle, or at least a plastic bottle that uses a larger portion of recycled material.
Interested water drinkers can learn more about this process over at the WSJ today.

Wellington cafes embrace plastic pollution cutting scheme allowing thirsty Kiwis free water bottle refills Thirsty residents can take their drink bottles into any cafe on board with the scheme for a free water top up.
Source: Facebook/ Refill NZ A scheme in Wellington is attempting to lead the way in cutting plastic pollution, giving thirsty residents options to fill their reusable water bottles for free, with cafes eager to get on board.
Jill Ford of RefillNZ said after travelling and seeing "the impact of plastic from deserts in Morocco to coral reefs in Colombia I decided to start Refill in New Zealand".
"We now have volunteers and cafes from around New Zealand contacting us to spread the word or sign up their cafes, these spread from Whitianga to Wanaka, with real keen beans in the Hawke’s Bay and Dunedin, so it’s all go."
"The next stage is that we’ve now got some funding from community trust of wellington which means we can start doing some paid social media marketing to get the word out.
She estimated 70-80 businesses were on board around the Wellington region.
Ms Ford said extending the idea to New Zealand came about after she worked on a plastic campaign with the organisation that created Refill in Britain.
"Then after (BBC nature documentary) Blue Planet came out [the company] Water England decided to contract them to go much bigger, and now it’s huge and is throughout the UK with over 15,000 businesses involved."
Councils and DHBs in the region are also said to be interested in the scheme, Ms Ford said.
"They are into the health benefits of drinking water, because of the diabetes epidemic New Zealand is facing which is closely linked to high sugar intakes."

Single-use plastics have been banned at the president’s office as a campaign was launched Sunday morning to minimise their use across government offices.
With more than 280,000 plastic water bottles used daily in the capital alone, the prevalence of plastic such as bags, bottles and wrappers in the Maldives was “at a worrying level,” President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih said at the launching event after presenting glass bottles to staff members.
Plastic makes up a large portion of the 860 metric tonnes of waste dumped into the ocean every day, he observed, stressing the importance of the initiative to preserve and protect the environment.
Following the example set by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, Foreign Ministry chooses an alternative to single-use plastic, with Minister Shahid launching a Campaign to minimize Single-Use Plastic in the MFA, in its efforts to protect & preserve the envt.#PlasticNoonGotheh pic.twitter.com/hMwVUHSZsz — MFA Maldives (@MDVForeign) December 2, 2018 Reducing single-use plastic was the focus of this year’s World Environment Day in June.
More than eight million tonnes of plastic is dumped into the ocean annually, which is toxic when ingested by plankton, fish and other marine animals.
Reefs are at risk as corals consume microplastics and are unable to expel the tiny fragments.
Single-use plastics have previously been banned in some offices and all school premises.
Parley for the Oceans, a US-based organisation, is working with resorts, schools and fishing vessels to intercept plastic, which is then shipped abroad for recycling.
It is making design-wear from plastic waste.
While appeals to reduce plastic consumption and waste were made on World Environment Day, local NGOs condemned the hypocrisy of “creating and expanding a culture of bottled water consumption.” A new water bottling plant that will produce 10,000 plastic bottles every hour is being set up in Kulhudhuffushi.

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.

But despite warnings about single use plastic, busy Londoners are still buying bottled water to quench their thirst before throwing it away, where it can take hundreds of years to degrade.
That’s why the Evening Standard is calling for the end of single use plastic bottles – starting with the Midtown area of our city.
With the Mayor’s commitment to deliver 20 new fountains across London this year, and potentially another 17 in the near future, the Evening Standard are pushing to see more drinking fountains in the Midtown area of the capital to combat plastic waste.
While underground stations are some of the most difficult places to install fountains due to limited space, a spokesperson for City Hall confirmed the Mayor’s interest: “The Mayor wants to work with landowners of areas directly outside Tube stations, and explore wider locations across the transport network like Overground stations and busy bus hubs to find suitable locations for water fountains.” It would also be good to see the historic fountain at Princes Circus made operational.
Campaign groups Water for London and Find a Fountain have been working to get more public fountains on our streets, while the likes of Refill, Tapwater.org and GiveMeTap have focussed on encouraging businesses to provide free tap water.
He says whilst community water schemes at shops such as Pret, Costa, Starbucks and Leon work for some, many still feel “pressurised to buy a cake or a coffee” when filling up.
In the first month the Mayor’s fountains at Liverpool Street station were installed, they dispensed more than 8,000 litres of drinking water, the equivalent to 16,000 water bottles.
The new drinking fountain outside Selfridges’ Duke Street entrance can be used by anyone.
Selfridges reported a 1,780 per cent increase in sales of refillable water bottles compared to the same period in 2014.
If we stop so many plastic bottles ending up in the river, we can make a difference to our oceans too.