Boxed water replaces plastic at Princeton

Environmentally friendlier packaging is a transitional step as the school looks for a more permanent alternative to landfill-clogging traditional plastic bottles.

Princeton University Dining is boxing out environmentally wasteful plastic water bottles with…um, boxes. That’s right, boxed water.

Similar to cardboard cartons of milk, the containers come in half-liter and one-liter sizes and are priced the same as their plastic equivalents, which were removed from all retail, catering and residential dining locations at the start of the current school year.

“Here on campus, it is our mission as educators to ask, how can we globally make a change starting with our students, who are our future leaders,” explains Cristian Vasquez, director of retail and catering for Princeton Dining Services. “So we are following the plastic reduction initiative that the [United Nations] has sent out and asked ourselves, how can we start, even if it’s only a little bit at a time, to make a difference. We decided water was the place to start because plastic-bottled water is one of our biggest purchased items here on campus.”

Hence, starting this fall semester, all plastic water bottles, bags and utensils have been removed from all campus dining locations, replaced by more sustainable alternatives. For bottled water, the alternatives include not just the boxes but also reusable containers that can be filled at multiple water stations around campus. Princeton Dining is encouraging the purchase and use of this less wasteful alternative among students, even giving away free ones to all incoming freshmen as part of their initiation to the campus.

The water boxes, sourced from a Michigan-based company called Boxed Water Is Better, are sold in all retail locations and are the packaged water alternative in catering and residential dining.

The product has generated some pushback from […]

Full article: Boxed water replaces plastic at Princeton

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Public drinking fountains can reduce single-use plastic bottles’ use

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What’s Best for Kids: Bottled Water or Fountains?

We Depend On Plastic. Now, We’re Drowning in It.

There’s plastic in your tap water, beer, and table salt