New bottle filling stations have been installed by Oswego State’s Sustainability Office in academic buildings across campus to reduce disposable bottle waste.

The major renovations done within the buildings in the past five years have included the installations of the bottle filling stations, said Mike Lotito, the Sustainability office’s engineering coordinator.

The installations were done as part of capital projects and capital construction projects, Lotito said.

“We started putting them in and we saw how well they worked in Shineman and Park,” Lotito said. “That’s when we started our project to put more of them in.”

Funded by administration and rebates from the state, the project has been ongoing for the past year and a half, according to Jamie Adams, the Sustainability office’s planning coordinator. This summer the rest of the academic buildings, which haven’t had renovations done, received their own bottle filling stations.

Lotito said a possible phase two of the installations would look at implementing the stations in the residence halls and more in academic buildings that might only have one.

Drinking fountains on campus share a water source with the bottle filling stations, but the stations are filtered and the water is chilled. 

By May, 393,962 bottles were filled up using the station and by August, the number increased to 444,798.

The stations, manufactured by Elkay, a supplier of kitchen and residential products to homes and commercial institutions, have visible trackers on them to show every 12 oz. bottle filled.

“The whole thing really is to promote the use of using reusable containers as opposed to the disposable,” said Thomas Pickett, the graduate assistant of the Sustainability Office.

Adams said the stations have been well received by the campus.

“They’re easy to use,” Sydney Credle, a junior, said of the bottles. “You can reuse them and you don’t have to throw them away.”

Along with the stations, the Sustainability Office is also working on an initiative called Tap In to decrease the amount of disposable bottle waste. Tap In was also a push to implement the bottle filling stations throughout campus.

“I think they are very efficient if you are on the go and on your way to class,” Lauren Nevil, a junior, said.

Water bottles distributed through the program come with a code, which is scanned through a phone application, through the Cupanion app to track the amount of waste saved every time a reusable bottle is refilled. Cupanion creates products with the mission to create environmental sustainability.

Prizes are given out through the Sustainability office as an incentive for students to participate. Cupanion also gives out prizes, including Netflix and Amazon gift cards, on a weekly basis.

Pickett said one person disposes of 167 plastic bottles per year on average and factoring in the number of people on campus, the office created a survey to figure out why the preference was disposable instead of reusable.

Based on the number of responses, Tap In was created.

Out of the approximately 146,000 reuses nationwide of the Cupanion app, Oswego State makes up around 27,000 of them, Adams said.

“We do take up a pretty significant portion of their users,” Adams said.

Tap In began last semester, running for eight weeks and passing out 2,500 bottles.

Adams said this semester has already been successful, especially this week. She and Pickett will present at a national conference on sustainability in higher education next month on the success of Tap In.

Tabling for both Tap In and the Sustainability Office is done Wednesdays in Marano Campus Center. There, students can receive either a metal thermal water bottle or one with a fruit infuser as incentive to take part in the initiative.