When Linnea Rameil, a freshman Journalism & New Media major, is thirsty, she skips the vending machines and fills her personal water bottle at one of the water bottle filling stations on MCCC’s West Windsor campus.
Rameil, who is from Germany, says her mother gave her the bottle years ago along with some motherly advice. She said, “It’s quicker. It [will save me] money because I [won’t] have to buy you plastic bottles anymore,” she added, “She was like, this is going to save a lot of plastic. She kind of changed my mind on that.”
Data supports that idea. A 20-ounce bottle of water sells for $2.50 on campus. Purchasing one $2.50 bottle a day, Monday through Friday would cost $175 over the course of a typical 14-week semester.
Rameil says, “In comparison to my friends who do buy bottles, I see the difference in expenses. They spend so much money on this. And they also have a trash problem. It sounds funny, but it’s the truth. They make so much plastic waste.”
The plastic waste from the college’s cafe and vending machines includes 4,400 single-use water bottles per week according to Mercer’s Chef Ricky Jones who provided the sales data for a sample week in October. That is 61,600 bottles discarded in a 14-week term that could be avoided using reusable water bottles and the water filling stations.
Stephen Tryba, a campus plumber, says that 67 filling stations were installed from 2018-2022 on the Windsor campus.
Josh Johnson, Director of Facilities & Operations, says that in addition to those 67 there are “10 on the Trenton campus.”
According to Johnson, the new stations were initially installed to replace the old-style water fountains.
He says, “It wasn’t an initiative where we said ‘We’re getting rid of the old units.’ They were problematic. The pressures would fail.”
Tryba adds, “Parts were more and more difficult to get for [the old fountains].”
Each filling station tracks how many single-use plastic water bottles it has saved based on 20 ounces per bottle. The VOICE examined 55 of the 67 Windsor campus filling stations and found that, according to their trackers, 417,992 bottles have been saved since their installation.
The stations also have filter status lights. Of the 55 stations visited, two displayed red lights indicating that the filters should be changed.
Johnson explains that the water is safe to drink even if the status light is red. He says, “The water coming into the campus is regulated by Hamilton and the Water Works, and then we do our own internal testing for things like lead, Legionella, prior to it being filtered. We’ve never had an issue where they’ve been outside of what the requirements are supposed to be.”
Johnson adds, “The water fountains that were replaced never had any type of filtering.”
Rameil emphasizes her mother’s advice saying, “You don’t have to spend a fortune on the Stanley Cup or something like that. You can just have a really cheap one that works just as well.”
NOTE: This article has been updated to clarify the amount of water bottles sold per week.
Red light filter status should be called into the Maintenance Hotline at 609-570-3500. Be sure to note the location of the station.
