The Illinois Student Senate Environmental Sustainability Subcommittee has a vested interest in promoting environmentally responsible campus policies and projects in an effort to encourage responsible and sustainable practices at the University of Illinois. One of the projects which the committee has been
discussing since the beginning of the semester has been encouraging the student body to wean off of disposable water bottles and promoting reusable water bottles, with the greater goal of curbing litter and wasteful discarding of recyclable bottling materials. Through primary surveying, this team has all heard many
students state that they would be in favor of more trouble-free water bottle filling stations. The first goal in this process is to encourage the use of reusable water bottles or thermoses, et.al., thereby relieving the dependency on disposable bottled water sold on shelves and in vending machines across campus. With this in
mind, this team proposes to retrofit campus water fountains with water filling stations, in the form of glass filler attachments by which users can easily fill reusable water containers. Through primary surveying as a committee, this team have heard much in the way of student support for a greater number of water bottle filling stations in main buildings on campus. Reaching the primary goal of providing students with an easier alternative to purchasing bottled water will represent the first step in the effort to address the educational, financial, and ethical issues that concern the disconcerting use and waste of disposable water bottles on campus.