A student grabs a bottle of water, downs it and responsibly tosses the empty plastic into a recycling container. By doing so, the student has supposedly negated the environmental impact of his or her plastic bottle and can now pat him or herself on the back for being green. Even the two out of 10plastic water bottles actually recycled, however, have significant negative consequences for the environment. Recycling is not enough to stop the impact of bottled water, and students should strive to cut plastic bottle use on campus as much as possible.

There are numerous problems with bottled water. Most bottles are not made of recycled plastic. For example, Pepsi’s U.S. operations only use recycled plastic in 10 percent of their resulting bottle. The production of PET plastic — a supposedly safe, recyclable packaging material used in most water bottles — uses crude oil and natural gas. The extraction of these nonrenewable resources creates air pollution that leads to health problems.

Often, the bottles are not even the most harmful part of bottled water. As areas of North America, especially in the west, struggle with dwindling water supplies, the extraction of water for bottling places additional strain on damaged aquifers. It is ridiculous that companies are allowed to sell consumers a public resource for at least 240 times more than it costs from home. Adding insult to injury, many bottled water companies extract their supplies from areas currently suffering from severe drought, namely California. One Nestlé bottling plant in California uses enough water annually to serve 500 homes.

Bottled water is not an environmentally friendly option. Bottled water is actually subject to less stringent purity standards than municipal water. The Environmental Protection Agency requires tap water to be completely free of E. coli, fecal coliform bacteria, asbestos and parasites, yet all of these are allowed in trace amounts or not regulated at all under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s bottled water rules. As of 2009, 47.8 percent of bottled water came from the tap.

At NYU, the Take Back the Tap project has campaigned for the elimination of water bottle sales in NYU dining halls and vending machines, as well as advocating for the introduction of more fill stations for reusable water bottles. While the complete removal of water bottles could leave some on campus in the lurch — even environmentally conscious students forget their refillable bottle sometimes and need water — NYU could definitely use more fill stations, in addition to the ones in Upstein, the Kimmel Center for University Life and Bobst Library. One in every dorm would be a good start.

Instead of endlessly shelling out hard-earned cash for disposable water bottles, invest in a refillable, long lasting water bottle. If not near a filling station, remember that the tap at home is an excellent alternative — especially in New York.

A version of this article appeared in the Tuesday, Sep. 23 print edition. Email Dana Brown at [email protected].