Students boycott plastic bottles to raise awareness about waste

Every day, all around the world, people are spending more money on bottled water than they are on gas.

Something that can be obtained for free is something that people are spending up to $4 a gallon for.

The Social Responsibility Club of SCSU hosted a Boycott the Bottle Day in Atwood Thursday with the documentary FLOW (For Love of Water) shown at 2 p.m. in Atwood Little Theater and a table with information about how bottled pop and water can be bad for the environment and the economy.

Some information available during Boycott the Bottle was that every hour Americans empty 2.5 million bottles of water and it takes over 500 years for those bottles to decompose in landfills, where 77 percent end up. Because of this, the Social Responsibility Club encouraged everyone to buy a reusable water bottle.

Carrie Raber, an urban conservationist at the Stearns County Soil and Water Conservation District, attended the documentary showing after hearing about it on KVSC radio.

"People need to first look locally. I think we need to all look at our own actions and then look at a larger scale," Raber said. "People can make small changes that don't impact them but have a big impact."

After the documentary, Julie Andrzejewski led a discussion while waiting for Darell Gerber, from Clean Water Action Minnesota, to arrive. He was unable to make it.

Clean Water Action is a national organization that works for clean water, health, safe jobs and making democracy work.

Gerber coordinates water and global warming programs, focusing on the Great Lakes, water quality and the connection between water and global warming.

Andrzejewski is a professor at SCSU who has been involved in social justice projects such as initiating the human relations minor, co-developing the social responsibility master's degree with John Alessio and she helped found the St. Cloud Women's Center.

"Do we have to wait until it comes to St. Cloud or should we take action now?" Andrzejewski asked.

During the documentary, an example of the harm being done by bottled water companies in Michigan was discussed.

Nestle moved to Mecosta County in central Michigan and began pumping water from streams at a rate of 480 gallons per minute without paying for it.

This caused such damage that the people in the area brought Nestle to court. Nestle appealed the decision so it was brought to the Supreme Court where it was decided that Nestle could continue to pump water from the streams at a rate of 218 gallons per minute.

"I liked how the people kept going head to head with the corporation in Michigan," Amer Lam, graduate student at SCSU, said.

Michigan is not the only place this is happening. In developing countries, many people are unable to get water because of privatization of the water supply. Because of this they are going to dirty rivers where they drink contaminated water and many people die.

FLOW discussed how the water crisis we are entering is related to global warming because dams contribute to methane gas and methane gas contributes to global warming.

"We need to understand that nature is leaving. It's not only water that we're having trouble with," Ciro Mugo, graduate student at SCSU, said. "We need to change our relationship with nature."

FLOW can be found in the library if anyone wants to view it.