By McKenzie Shields
Go Green Club has launched a campaign against single-use plastic on campus, including the use of plastic water bottles labeled with an image of Lake Ontario which are sold in retail dining locations.
Go Green Club, SUNY Oswego’s climate justice organization, passed a bill through the Student Association last spring which discusses the use of plastic on campus, Valerie Goetz, a co-founder and the treasurer of the club, said.
One element of this campaign involved discussion over the disposable plastic bottles which are sold and distributed on campus.
“These bottles are sold at Lake Effect Café, Crossroads, Wall Street Market, Palates, [and] Laker Express Market,” Stephen McAfee, the Executive Director of Auxiliary Services, said. He added that they are also used for catering and are given to prospective students visiting campus.
According to McAfee, the bottles are purchased from Blue Mountain Spring Water and this partnership began in 2010 after some debate over whether the campus should use spring or demineralized process water.
“Blue Mountain approached us and shared their story of the family business and what they were doing to grow to better support their community with good paying careers,” McAfee said. He added that they also worked to help them select an image that was recognizable, which is how the picture of Lake Ontario was chosen.
“Our intent was to celebrate a favorite moment on campus,” McAfee said.
But Goetz feels differently about the use of the image.
“It goes against what we stand for as a college, our sustainability mission statement,” Goetz said. “And it just looks bad on us, especially since we live on such a beautiful natural reservoir of water, being Lake Ontario, that we are taking water from somewhere else and going through this harmful process of putting it into a plastic water bottle and then selling it to make a profit for the school.”
The water for the bottles is sourced from a natural spring at the Aqua Valley Bottling Plant in Edmeston, New York, in the Tug Hill Area, McAfee said
As for what Go Green Club hopes the campus will do, Goetz said that they want them to begin removing the bottles from the retail dining facilities. However, she recognizes that there is a need for an alternative.
“There are some accessibility issues with that, and what if I forget my reusable water bottle, am I just going to be thirsty all day?” Julie Brophy said, a co-founder of Go Green Club and its director of fundraising. She added that some schools, such as SUNY New Paltz, have started using canned water, which was a more recyclable alternative to plastic.
“We’d also like to see the college add more filtered water stations,” said Goetz. She continued by saying that Go Green Club will also be asking the college to add at least one filtered water station in a residence hall per year.
McAfee said that Auxiliary Services has worked in conjunction with the Sustainability department on initiatives such as composting and Tap In. Tap In encourages the use of reusable water bottles in place of single-use bottles.
“Every member of the Oswego community has a duty and a responsibility to steward the lake,” McAfee said. “It is not an infinite resource.”
Brophy said that the idea for the campaign began at a coffee shop, and was built up from there. Goetz said that it was somewhat inspired by a similar project at SUNY New Paltz, where she attended a sustainability conference.
Following the passage of the bill with the Student Association, Go Green Club is also working on new campaigns.
“We are running a divestment campaign, where we are asking SUNY Oswego to divest from fossil fuels,” said Brophy. She added that this involves asking the school for transparency in their investments.
As part of this, Goetz said the club will be hosting a divestment-themed event for the Global Climate Strike on March 25.
Kailee Montross | The Oswegonian
