
Listen to this week’s radio segment here or read the transcript below. This week’s segment discusses recent efforts by The University of Iowa to cut down on disposable bottled water waste.
University of Iowa’s hydration stations are cutting down on plastic waste on campus.
This is the Iowa Environmental Focus.
Starting in 2011, University of Iowa began adding hydration stations to various building on campus. These stations are water bottle friendly and supply filtered water. They also have an electronic display that shows an estimate of the number of disposable water bottles saved from people using the hydration station instead of purchasing bottled water.
Now the university is adding more hydration stations including in the Main Library and the new art and music buildings.
Three of the existing hydration stations have each already saved over 15,000 disposable water bottles. Eighty-six percent of disposable water bottles end up in a landfill or incinerator.
For more information on UI’s efforts, visit IowaEnvironmentalFocus.org.
From the UI Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research, I’m Jerry Schnoor.