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Introduction
Clean water is essential to life, yet the health and environmental effects of water consumption are staggering. In the USA, a variety of diseases and disabilities have resulted from the ingestion of pathogenic organisms or inorganic contaminants in drinking water producing diarrheal diseases (MacKenzie et al., 1994), Legionnaire’s disease (Falkinham et al., 2015), and lifelong cognitive impairment from lead (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, 2007). Beginning April 2014, lead and Legionella bacteria contamination of the municipal water supply in Flint, MI resulted in a public health crisis that garnered international media attention (AlHajal, 2016; Hanna-Attisha et al., 2016). This disaster has sparked an ongoing conversation regarding the role and place of local, state, and federal governments regarding the protection and maintenance of public utilities. Such a large contamination of water led to a growth in the use of bottled water, continuing a trend of plastic production and consumption with little discussion on environmental costs of production and disposal. In addition, the crisis has spurred substantial opinion on the approach of the crisis, which often falls on the political spectrum.
As concerns about municipal water safety grow with every outbreak, consumers have continued to purchase more bottled water (Pape and Seo, 2015) resulting in significant plastic waste (Olson, 2013). National bottled water sales continue to break records despite bottled water companies’ own health concerns prompting recalls (Brumfield and Colwell, 2015), less federal oversight than public water system standards (Stephenson, 2009), and bottled water’s negative environmental impacts (Gleick and Cooley, 2009; Olson, 2013). The University of South Florida Tampa campus (USF-Tampa) follows the national trend with bottled water sales exceeding all other beverage sales on campus (A. Diba, personal communication, April 13, 2016). The perceptions regarding tap water and bottled water, including health, economic, and environmental outcomes, affect drinking water choices on college campuses (Saylor et al., 2011) and pose a challenge to the American Colleges and University Presidents Climate Commitment, a campaign to neutralize greenhouse gas emissions.
The growth of the bottled water industry
The bottled water industry has experienced tremendous growth in the USA and around the world. In 1976, Americans drank only 1.6 gallons (6.1 L) of bottled water per person. In the past two decades, consumption has...