On Page 4A of your May 30 newspaper, there was a photo of adult college graduates doing something harmful to our environment, with a caption that seems to encourage such waste. They were being handed single-use water bottles.
I can only assume that most of these bottles will be left on the ground to be picked up by grounds keepers. After all, this is graduation, where impediments like used bottles and clothes and utensils borrowed from the dining rooms and other useless clutter are left in place for others, who are left behind, are to pick up. I would hope that this generation would be better, than many examples of the past, where trucks were needed to clear dorm rooms.
Empty water bottles are a big disposal problem. If put in the trash, they fill landfills and are blown around uncovered landfills, and are a big part of roadside litter, next to beer bottles. Not many places give a nickel as a returnable for water bottles. They are a big visible part of single use throw away plastic pollution around.
Most people can last well over two hours without refilling water supplies. For those who need to refill like runners, there are refillable hydration systems that are strapped on with a long hose to suck on.
Your picture didn’t show any students refusing this pollution source, but you probably wouldn’t show such civic action.
Please have an article to show a correction to your picture, with pictures of abundant empty single use bottles blowing around and details of the problems caused by them. And maybe an article about how long a human can go without constantly drinking water on a cool day and sitting down.
Peter Grant
Bristol