What's wrong with the tap? Why Purdue University students, faculty, and staff are choosing bottled water

Amber M Saylor, Purdue University

Abstract

The extensive environmental impacts of bottled water prompted us to explore the social dimensions of drinking water choices through a mixed methods approach. We conducted a quantitative survey of a random sample of Purdue University students, faculty, and staff (n=677), followed by qualitative mental models interviews with 21 Purdue undergraduate students. The quantitative survey provided an assessment of current behaviors and beliefs as well as the barriers and benefits to drinking tap water that respondents perceived to be important. In addition to adding more detailed contextual information to our survey findings, the face-to-face interviews allowed us to construct mental models to represent the beliefs that individuals who drink bottled water, tap water, or filtered tap water rely on when deciding what type of water to drink. The survey and interviews revealed that important barriers to drinking tap water include: perceived risks from tap water and the perceived safety of bottled water, preferring the taste of bottled water, and the relative convenience of drinking bottled water at Purdue University. Benefits that consumers of bottled water thought would motivate them to change included the high cost of bottled water relative to tap water, reducing the amount of plastic produced and ultimately filling up landfills, and reducing their consumption of oil that is used to make the plastic bottles. Through this study of Purdue University, we have identified important factors that contribute to drinking water choices and conducted a barriers and benefits assessment to facilitate the development of a social marketing campaign to promote tap water as the sustainable alternative to bottled water.

Degree

M.S.

Advisors

Prokopy, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Social research|Natural Resource Management|Sustainability

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