He and other students believe that completely eliminating the sale of disposable plastic water bottles on campus is the only way to achieve zero waste by 2020.
"We want to ban the sale of plastic water bottles because plastic is the No.
1 threat to marine ecosystems," said Mnatsakanian.
"Bottled water plants negatively affect surrounding communities, and annual purchases of bottled water are 2000 times more expensive than using tap water.
On top of that, tap water has significantly lower rates of potentially damaging substances."
The ban on plastic water bottles isn’t the first campaign aimed at decreasing their presence on campus.
"Breaking the Plastic Habit" was an SSC campaign in 2011 that pledged to eliminate the sale of plastic water bottles in dining halls and resulted in the installation of the first 10 hydration stations on campus.
The All Campuses Plastic Water Bottle Ban campaign plans to implement lasting policy not only at UC San Diego, but all UC campuses.
"Thanks to years of working with campus administration, UC San Diego Plastic Water Bottle Ban campaign leaders now have the expertise to teach student environmentalists at other campuses how to implement changes," said Mnatsakanian.
During this year’s event, Mnatsakanian directed Student Sustainability Collective leaders from campuses around the country about bypassing initiatives and aiming straight for policy changes.

According to Jambeck’s research, this figure is on track to double by 2025 unless something is done, swiftly and at a global scale, to stem the tide of garbage.
Ocean Conservancy, a nonprofit that organizes an annual coastal cleanup event in more than 150 countries worldwide, said plastic debris makes up around 85 percent of all the trash collected from beaches, waterways and oceans ― and that’s just the stuff we can see.
There are also untold numbers of extremely small plastic fragments in marine waters.
Marcus Eriksen, a co-founder of the 5 Gyres Institute, an organization dedicated to reducing plastic pollution, describes marine microplastics as a “plastic smog throughout the world’s oceans.” From Land To The Sea So, how does all this plastic waste end up in the oceans?
“And because our per-person waste generation rate is so high in the U.S., even that small amount of litter contributes to this problem.” The United States is one of the world’s top five waste-generating developed countries, according to the World Economic Forum.
According to her research, global plastic resin production has increased by about 620 percent since 1975.
And it’s not just wildlife that’s threatened by the plastics in our seas.
A growing body of evidence suggests humans are consuming plastics through the seafood we eat.
At a global level, several countries have recently committed to reducing the amount of plastic they send into the oceans.
But it’s not just countries that need to do their part.

Very Hungry Caterpillar Degrade Plastic at Record Speed.
It could be a step towards dealing with water pollution.
The creature in question is a waxworm, the caterpillar larvae of a wax moth and an enemy of beekeepers as it’s a parasite in bee hives.
Newsweek notes that chicken embryos researcher Federica Betocchini happens to be a beekeeper and was recently cleaning a hive and removed some waxworms, putting them in a plastic bag.
Later she discovered they had eaten their way to freedom.
She tipped off plastic biodegradation experts Paolo Bombelli and Christopher Howe at Cambridge University.
They carried out a study and found that the waxworms are able to digest polyethylene, which makes up around 40 percent of the plastics worldwide and is most commonly used for plastic packaging, bags and bottles.
While some bacteria and fungi are known to be able to break down polyethylene, this can take between three and seven months to get started and then proceed at a very slow rate.
Bombelli and Howe found that a waxworm can make its first hole in around forty minutes and then ramp up to around three holes every hour.
The most likely explanation is that the waxworms house microbes in their stomachs that carry out the degradation, making the waxworms prepared to eat the plastic in a way other creatures wouldn’t.

LPGE students look to eliminate disposable plastic water bottles.
1 / 2 Long Prairie-Grey Eagle Secondary School students have committed to eliminating disposable water bottles through a "Ban the Bottle" initiative.
Phillips said last year’s area studies students launched a green Initiative with a commitment to do something environmentally friendly for the school, its students, and the community on an annual basis.
The area studies class spent time studying global water resources, plastics, the economics of bottled water, and pollution.
On March 31, all students and staff at LPGE Secondary School attended a symposium led by those involved in the Area Studies Green Initiative.
The students’ presentation emphasized the importance of drinking water and the environmental impact and health risks associated with plastic bottled water.
Students were also given a "Ban the Bottle" bracelet to remind them to use their water bottles wherever they go in lieu of the disposable plastic counterpart.
Students in the Area Studies Green Initiative applied for funding through NJPA’s Small Project Partnership.
"Every dollar raised was from the community, including from NJPA, who is a partner with our school," Phillips said.
"The Small Project Partnership from NJPA really made this happen, because we were finding out it was going to be too much money per sponsor, and they matched everything we did."

How is Ocean Waste Tricking Seabirds?.
Plastic waste poses a serious problem for wildlife, causing a variety of problems.
As well as potential suffocation, plastic waste can be poisonous to seabirds who often digest the materials.
But a recent discovery has revealed that the situation might actually be far worse.
Chemical attraction It’s bad enough having toxic plastic waste in the ocean, but now researchers have discovered that birds are being attracted to the plastics.
They give off a chemical that certain species of seabird normally use to locate their food.
So how does it happen?
Dangerous dinner time Birds that are more reliant on the smell of dimethyl sulphide are naturally more likely to ingest the plastic.
How can we measure water pollution?
Water pollution doesn’t end at plastic.

Will These Edible Water Balloons Replace Plastic Bottles?.
Plastic bags, plastic packaging…and or course, the most common of all: plastic bottles.
And that statistic is just bottled water.
Advertisement However, a group of scientists have worked on a solution, one that may just help change the fate of our environment.
Therefore anytime we’re craving a little H2O, we can soon reach for a small squishy ball of water— with what looks like the consistency of a grape — instead of a bottle.
Or you can plop one in your mouth and eat the covering for an instant fix.
The lab launched a crowdfunding page, which more than met its goal.
Ooho is an edible packaging, a 100% natural, biodegradable material made from seaweed.
is a sustainable packaging alternative to plastic bottles and cups, made from a seaweed extract.
Ooho sachets are flexible packets of water, drunk by tearing a hole and pouring into your mouth, or consumed whole.

Eat This Water Bottle, Quench Your Thirst.
Thirsty?
Pop this edible water balloon into your mouth and swallow the whole thing — no plastic, no waste.
Something’s gotta give.
Upstart renewal packaging manufacturer Skipping Rocks Labs believes it has the answer: Biodegradable “bottles” you can eat.
As the ice melts, the membrane stays intact, creating a gelatinous, contained ball of water.
While the Ooho is edible, it’s not necessary to eat it.
The algae membrane decomposes in four to six weeks.
The best news for eco- and thrift-conscious consumers is that Ooho claims to be cheaper than a plastic bottle.
At this point, Ooho uses five times less CO2 and nine times less energy to produce than PET.

Town Meeting: Sudbury Votes on Pot Businesses, Plastic Bags, Bottled Water, Budgets, More.
SUDBURY, MA — Sudbury’s voters will make decisions on funding for the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, whether or not to establish a moratorium on marijuana business in town, sidewalk improvements, purchases for the fire department, as well as approve budgets for the town and the school, at Town Meeting and Special Town Meeting this week.
The town will also decide whether to implement bylaws that affect the use of plastic bags and the regulation and sale of bottled water.
And that’s just a smattering.
View the full warrant, which includes 36 articles, with arguments for and against each, and a full financial budget proposals for the town, schools and other municipal departments.
Town Meeting takes place on Monday, May 1, at 7:30 p.m. at Lincoln- Sudbury Regional High School.
The Special Town Election is also taking place on Tuesday, May 9, at 7:30 p.m. at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School.
View the full warrant, and special town election information, here.
Photo Credit: Getty Images/News

ABRHS seniors, Rychlik and Chantal Raguin are asking their peers to join the "Get On Tap" movement in order to reduce the school district’s reliance on bottled water.
The two will host a series of events promoting the use of local water in the regional school district.
"Tapped" (2009) Documentary Screening taking place on Monday, April 10, at 7 p.m, in the ABRHS cafeteria, located at 36 Charter Road in Acton.
The idea to ban plastic water bottles in the school district was conceived by Rychlik and Raguin almost a year ago, but after researching more about how to actualize change, the girls thought the significant undertaking would be more appropriate for their senior project.
Rychlik and Raguin are promoting policy change and community-wide education around banning plastic water bottles to help save the environment.
"In general, it was really well received, I think primarily because we began the presentation with the donation of a reusable water bottle filler for the junior high," said Rychlik, noting they received a $1,000 grant from The U-Project through Acton’s Danny’s Place Youth Services (DPYS).
They sort of adopted it as a project now," said Rychlik, noting now that the policy is out of her and Raguin’s hands, they’re focusing on the promotional week to help the community transition from bottled water to tap water.
Concord’s ban In 2012, Concord was successful in banning water bottles throughout town.
"Chantel and I are both really into environmental science and sustainability, so we’ve never been heavy users of plastic water bottles, but we’ve sort of rediscovered Concord’s ban against bottled water," said Rychlik, adding that she and Raguin researched Jill Appel, the lead activist for Concord On Tap, for guidance on launching a "Get On Tap" movement in Acton-Boxborough schools and also for Appel to be a guest speaker during the promotional week next month.
Working with your best friend about something you are passionate about, plus meeting all sorts of hard-working and inspiring people along the way — it doesn’t get much better that that," Raguin said.

Food poisoning is a scourge.
Yet preventing it is far from foolproof.
But in a new study in Analytical Chemistry, scientists report that they are closing in on a way to use a combination of color-changing paper and electrochemical analysis — on plastic transparency sheets or simple paper — to quickly, cheaply and more accurately detect bacterial contamination of fruits and vegetables in the field before they reach grocery stores, restaurants and household pantries.
Of all the contaminants found in food and water, bacteria cause the most hospitalizations and deaths in the United States.
Nearly half of these incidents are attributed to spinach, cabbage, lettuce and other leafy greens, which are sometimes irrigated with unsafe water containing fecal material.
But traditional lab cultures take up to 48 hours to produce results, and other techniques such as DNA amplification and immunoassays are costly and are prone to false results.
Recently, Charles S. Henry and colleagues developed a paper-based method to detect Salmonella, Listeria and E. coli in food and water samples.
To simulate contaminated food, the researchers exposed clean alfalfa sprouts to E.coli and Enterococcus faecalis bacteria.
They also collected unfiltered water from a nearby lagoon.
For colorimetric detection, the team built a simple light box, which served as a substitute for a laboratory plate reader.