How to get the snooty/lazy bunch to stop using personal bottle of H20?
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Move to Swaziland. They don't do the bottled water thing there much. Also, they don't squander electricity, gasoline, or toothpaste. Or, you could just accept that its none of your business what other people consume.
I think you're on the wrong board, buddy. Go gripe somewhere else
I am not snooty or lazy. I do not like the taste of most tap water, even filtered, even flavored. It has to do with the smell. If I HAVE to drink it, I put it in a bottle with a small neck and use a straw. But the sediment that always settles on the bottom grosses me out too.
I buy a LOT of water bottles. I also buy it in 2.5 gallon jugs. I used to have a water service, but that had an off taste too sometimes, so we canceled it. We used to have a crock with large jugs that I refilled at the machines in front of the grocery store. Almost every time someone would come up and tell me that even at 25 cents a gallon I was overpaying and that a filter would save me so much money. Maybe. But the stuff I buy tastes better to me.
I wish people that freak out over the water bottle thing would stop trying to tell everyone what to do. Just because their tastebuds and sense of smell aren't developed enough to tell the difference, doesn't mean MINE isn't.
As an alternative to the kid's school party thing, instead of complaining how it's done (like most people/parents do) you could volunteer to help and do things your own way. I know that 'doing it yourself' is a radical idea, especially when it's so much easier to just criticize those who do, but I'll put it out there anyway.
One thing you'll discover is that the volunteers (these are those who are DOING, instead of just criticizing) are trying to make things easier on themselves and the teachers. Water bottles and those boxes/bags of juice are much easier to clean up than drinks in cups, and there is less spilling as well. This is important to those of us who "do" - very few of the parents send in money for the food and game fund (last year, I put together each of my kid's class parties with less than $20 in donations from more than 40 kids for both classrooms) much less, attend to help out, or stick around to help clean up if they do.
I propse a new thread entitled "How to get the snooty/lazy people to stop trying to tell me what to do and get off their own behinds and REALLY make a difference"
Anyone have an approach I could try to use at my children's school? At all the parties and social functions they have the bottles by the dozen and I can't stand watching them fill the garbage cans--not to mention the money I had to pay for contributions to food funds. I'm much to blunt of a person to be effective here with the PTA bunch so wondering if any can suggest an approach to get them on board?
I would laugh my ass off if someone asked me not to drink my own water..
You might want to send a note to the board rather than speaking to them if that is more comfortable.
Consider quantifying/projecting the number of bottles used for all events during the school year. Number of bottles/ cost.
When seen in perspective the problem may become apparent and cause some self regulating on the boards part to occur in your favor.
Here is another article to use as a reference to support your position. It would be effective if you placed the yearly numbers of bottles used by the school board next to the numbers given in the article and present this as your schools per cent of contribution to the growing problem of waste.
There must be some brainwashing ultra green science teacher at the school who would sympathize with you and perhaps carry your banner in a politically correct manner.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5279230/
Another good article taken from Bloomberg rather than some greenie propaganda rag.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&refer=home&sid=a14k5rGoGenk
Some other articles to reference.
Note the caution in the 2nd article.... "It will mean a loss of revenue for the board from vending contracts, although how much isn't known."
Many articles on the harmful effects of the manufacture and use of plastic water bottles. As this aspect is so controversial it would be tough to hinge your argument from this perspective. It still is useful to note in your letter the preponderance of concern and the fact that young children would be the first to be affected collectively if the dangers eventually prove true. Certainly some children will be more sensitive to leaching chemicals.
A poster showing plastic bottles in their worst way with your school, include name, seen tossing their bottles, quantified by you, onto the pile, would be effective especially when broadcast to the public.
I'm sorry, I think I totally misinterpreted the OP's issue here. The OP wants the school to stop buying water bottles and use the fountains instead?
I think for health reasons and the efforts schools make towards trying to reduce the spread of germs and disease is why most schools seem to prefer kids having individual bottles rather than the old fashioned water fountain thing. Water fountains are nasty, I tell my kids not to use them. And in the classrooms these days you're lucky if there is a person who comes around once a month even to clean them correctly. Talk to the maintenance/groundskeeper person at your school and ask when the last time anyone sanitized the water fountains at the school. And I don't mean a quick spray with some kind of chemical solution and a quick wipe-down with a dirty rag... You might be surprised! No thanks, I'll send my kids with their own water bottle...
How to get the snooty/lazy bunch to stop using personal bottle of H20?
If you are coming at people with this attitude you are probably doomed to lose. If they detect that you have an adversarial tone (which you do judging by your headline) they will go into defense mode and never listen to anything you say no matter how reasonable. All you can do is make suggestions via the PTA/School Board/etc. and hope for the best.
I'm sorry, I think I totally misinterpreted the OP's issue here. The OP wants the school to stop buying water bottles and use the fountains instead?
I think for health reasons and the efforts schools make towards trying to reduce the spread of germs and disease is why most schools seem to prefer kids having individual bottles rather than the old fashioned water fountain thing. Water fountains are nasty, I tell my kids not to use them. And in the classrooms these days you're lucky if there is a person who comes around once a month even to clean them correctly. Talk to the maintenance/groundskeeper person at your school and ask when the last time anyone sanitized the water fountains at the school. And I don't mean a quick spray with some kind of chemical solution and a quick wipe-down with a dirty rag... You might be surprised! No thanks, I'll send my kids with their own water bottle...
Its just the most amazing miracle that millions of kids somehow survived drinking out of deathly toxic water fountains for 100s of years at school before the advent of finally safe water in plastic bottles.
Its just the most amazing miracle that millions of kids somehow survived drinking out of deathly toxic water fountains for 100s of years at school before the advent of finally safe water in plastic bottles.
I understand your point. I totally drank out of water fountains at my school growing up and survived of course. But where I live, too, we seem to have a lot of strange things going around that we don't remember having to deal with when I was a kid. Lots of families are not vaccinating (controversial and personal issue, but it affects all public health), and sending your kid to school sick is more the norm now (a major big-time gripe of mine, I hate it when parents do this and I see it everyday at my kids schools - yes I volunteer every day). Schools are also cutting budgets left and right and many don't have enough people on staff to clean the bildings like they used to. It's just different now. Not to mention the whole debate regarding tap water versus filtered water, old nasty (lead?) pipes in the older school buildings, etc. Our tap water where we live is good but we still use home filtration to try to get out as much of the chlorine as we can before we drink it.
I guess my position is, if you can provide a cleaner and probably healthier alternative for your kid, why wouldn't you? Sure water fountains can be fine in a pinch, but it doesn't hurt to have a glass or stainless steel water bottle to keep with you and refill and wash as needed. We really like kleen kanteens (NOT aluminum, these are good quality stainless steel ones) and the glass vessel (http://www.shopvesseldrinkware.com/category_s/130.htm - broken link) ones. Vessel also makes a glass double-walled travel tea tumbler (http://www.shopvesseldrinkware.com/category_s/129.htm - broken link) which is very cool, too! We don't drink out of plastic if we can help it.
And one last reason why we choose to send the bottles: our kids drink more water this way. Since the teachers allow them to keep water bottles at their desk, they drink all throughout the day. They don't have to get up from their desk or anything. And after P.E. when all the kids line up for the water fountains, they can just chug away without the wait.
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