Roughly 25 students gathered at the bottom of the damp steps of Old Main Wednesday afternoon and spelled out the word "NO" with plastic bottles.
Members of the newly formed Penn State Environment, Ecology and Education in the College of Education (3E-COE) group and other environmental activists gathered to protest the sale and use of plastic water bottles at Penn State. The activists also delivered a letter to Penn State President Graham Spanier's office asking him to ban the sale of disposable water bottles on campus.
"Eliminating water bottles on campus isn't without precedent," said Alexandra D'Urso, co-founding member of 3E-COE, citing Washington University in St. Louis as a university that prohibits the sale of plastic water bottles on campus. "We're not asking people to make huge cultural changes."
The letter to Spanier spelled out the environmental and health concerns 3E-COE says are associated with the use of plastic water bottles and gave examples of their negative effects, particularly the amount of discarded plastic polluting the oceans.
Though Penn State has instituted a recycling program on campus, the program is somewhat ineffective, D'Urso said.
"Currently, if there's any cross contamination, the whole bin of things is discarded," D'Urso said, adding she thinks this happens frequently.
In addition to the reading of the letter, the demonstration also featured a "garland" of water bottles -- all of which were gathered from around State College -- and the singing of environmental songs to the tune of holiday carols.
Songs included "Global warming Christmas" sung to the tune of "White Christmas," "Climate news to you we bring" to the tune of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" and "O scorching night" to the tune of "O Holy Night."
The songs addressed the environmental issues in humorous ways with lines such as "December's hotter than J. Lo" and poked fun at the current presidential administration with "The truth of [Al] Gore you have ignored/ Bush is your elected lord."
Though the songs offered a lighter tone to the demonstration, the protesters did not steer away from the issue at hand, which is one John Stevenson (junior-community environment and development) said will be around for a while.
"Water bottles in particular are one of the dumbest things people do on a regular basis, environmentally," Stevenson said. "You should drink water and do it in a way that's not wasteful."
Stevenson has refrained from using plastic water bottles "for a few years" and instead carries both a thermos and a reusable water bottle in his backpack.
Jared Blumer (sophomore-secondary education) said some people aren't aware of the environmental problems and how to go about solving them.
"Recycling in general is viewed as a great thing, but reusing is the key to sustainability," Blumer, a member of 3E-COE, said.
D'Urso said she hopes the letter will begin a dialogue with the university about the proposed change.
