Penn State environmental group calls for campus bottled water ban

An environmental group at Penn State is speaking out against bottled water.

Members of Environment, Ecology and Education in the College of Education "called on the university to end its contract with Aquafina, noting that the stuff in the bottle is not better than what comes out of the tap, costs too much and creates unwanted plastic waste," according to the Pocono Record.

The group asked students to sign a petition against bottled water and to rethink their own consumption of it.

We agree with their message that bottled water is a wasteful from an environmental standpoint. But we don't agree that drinking tap water is the only solution. Tap water has its own set of problems -- water quality being prime among them.

Saying that drinking tap water is the only alternative to bottled water is akin to abstinence-only sex education.

While the either-or message will resonate with some people, who will switch to tap water, there will be others who don't like the tap option. And they'll hop right back into bed with bottled water because they don't realize there's another alternative -- a water dispenser.