Today is national campus sustainability day, and SPEAR (Students Promoting Environmental Awareness and Responsibility) is holding a water taste test on the Rand Wall in its honor, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Filtered, tap and bottled water samples are available for students to try and see if they can correctly identify each kind. A goal of sustainability day and the goal of this taste test is to discourage students from using bottled waters in exchange for reusable water bottles. SPEAR member Rebecca Maddox, said the state of Tennessee consumes 4 billion bottles of water a year.
"Those bottles trap air, and don't decompose," she said. "It's a bigger environmental problem than we think."
SPEAR used Dasani for the tests. Maddox said Coca-Cola uses water from the Atlanta, Ga. water authority, and it doesn't have to print that on its labels because it puts the water through a filtration process.
Sophomore Cayla Mackey correctly identified each type of water. She said the filtered water tasted "mineral-ly" as opposed to the tap, but that they were all very similar. She said she uses a reusable water bottle and fills it with the filtered water tap in Rand.
Junior Ben Kahn, also working the table with Maddox said there are more laws on the regulation of tap water than on bottled water, so tap water could actually be better for you.
Also for campus sustainability day, at 5:30 p.m. in 126 Wilson, "The Story of Stuff" will be shown and discussed by a panel. A Q&A and dessert will follow the showing of the 20-minute documentary.
