Schools

New Fountains at CL Central, CL South, Cary-Grove Reduce Waste

New water bottle dispensers were installed at the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year.

Today is Earth Day, but students in Community High School District 155 have been acting "eco-friendly" all year.

Last fall, new water fountains were installed at Crystal Lake Central, Crystal Lake South and Cary Grove high schools right next to the standard drinking fountains.

The new fountains are similar to water dispensers featured on modern refrigerator doors. The "water bottle filler fountains" were designed so users can refill and reuse plastic water bottles or sports bottles, thereby eliminating refuse.

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The cool feature about the new machines is they calculate the number of plastic water bottles refilled, giving students and staff members a clear understanding of how much waste they've prevented.

"In total, these stations have helped eliminate waste from 574,319 disposable plastic bottles (as of Friday morning)," said Jeffrey Puma, communications director for Community High School District 155.

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Prairie Ridge High School was the first District 155 school to get a water bottle filling machine five years ago. But the older version of the fountain doesn't track the amount of bottles saved, Puma said. The number of bottles saved at that school is not included in the district's overall total.

 

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