From left: Paul Midkiff, Michelle Le, Elizabeth Pearson, Lauren Kunselman, Hannah Christian, Caroline Pearson, Chambers English
Our Story:
​The Bottle Busters came together with the mission of banning disposable water sales at our school, Mount de Sales Academy. We wanted to establish a positive alternative and raise awareness, too, so we petitioned for water bottle filling stations. After negotiating with administration, we set out to sell MDS reusable water bottles, get students to pledge against disposable bottles, and raise support for 7 filling stations to be installed on campus. Today, because of the multiple announcemenst and assemblies the club has organized, every student at our school knows the truth about disposable water bottles and uses the filling stations happily.
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But we didn't stop there.
​Knowing how many bottles we could conserve by reaching out into the community, the Bottle Busters began a series of new plans. We were the first high school in Georgia to ban the bottle, but we couldn't be the last. So we started to plan an event that would raise community-wide awareness to our cause. The Running Water 5k, scheduled for May 2015 on Water Week, will encourage students from every school in our community to come out and represent their school. Proceeds will go proportionally towards each schools' water filling station fund according to how many students register for their school. Non-students are welcome as well, as we hope to inspire everyone to make the switch to environmentally conscious, reusable water bottles.
About us
We're committed to the cause.​
Why? Because one disposable water uses enough oil in its production to fill the bottle 1/4 full. That means 17 million barrels of oil are used annually for these unnecessary products. What's worse is that only 38% are recycled, leaving the rest in landfills or, unfortunately, our oceans. And for what? Cleaner water? Surprisingly, no.
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​Believe it or not, tap is often cleaner than bottled.
In America, municipal water sources are required to test their filtration multiple times per day. In Macon-Bibb County, the water is tested hourly. In contrast, bottled water companies only have to test their water weekly, and they don't have to report the results to the FDA at all. That means safe, pure tap water is guaranteed, leaving bottled water questionable at best.
