Essex County Schools Are Embracing Water Bottle Filling Stations (Here’s Why)

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — What’s safer, tap water or bottled water? The answer may surprise you, experts say.

In a move towards “greener” schools and a sustainable, eco-friendly water industry, Millburn Public School administrators will soon have water bottle filling stations available for all of their students. The district is now one of several in Essex County to embrace the new technology (see below).

“Thanks to the generosity and efforts of PTOs and the BOE, water bottle filling stations are now available at all Millburn Township elementary schools and Millburn Middle School,” administrators announced last week.

Stations at Millburn High School will be installed soon, administrators said.

To help put the new filling stations to use, the Millburn Green Schools Team is asking parents and students to stay healthy and hydrated by bringing reusable bottles to school in lieu of disposable water bottles or sugary drinks, administrators said.

A school news release about the new filling stations included a list of “facts about bottled water”:

• Tap water is safer than bottled water. The belief that bottled water is better than tap water is driven by a multimillion-dollar industry marketing effort. Bottled water is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration; whereas tap water is regulated more strictly by the Environmental Protection Agency.
• Bottled water consumers are often drinking tap water that has been processed, packaged and shipped, damaging our environment and ultimately costing up to thousands of times the price of drinking this same water straight from the tap.
• Bottling companies often take water from sources that local residents depend on for drinking and recreation, thus reducing the availability of local resources for others that depend on them.
• One study found that the manufacture, production and transportation of bottled water uses 1,100 to 2,000 times more energy than the treatment and distribution of tap water.
• Most plastic water bottles are not recycled (only 29% in 2017).

ESSEX COUNTY SCHOOLS ‘FILL IT UP’

Millburn isn’t the only Essex County school district to recently install water bottle filling stations.

Verona High School recently installed one of the units thanks to its Marine Biology Club, according to the Verona Environmental Commission.

And in Nutley, both Yantacaw and Washington Schools recently posted about their new filling stations on Facebook.

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Main Photo: Millburn Public Schools