Looking for new school fundraiser ideas that can raise money AND be good for the planet?  Then try the Back2Tap Water Bottle or Litter-less Lunch Fundraisers to help reduce the amount of disposable plastic used while raising money for your school!

So, how does it work?

The first step in a successful eco-friendly fundraiser is education.  Once the kids are aware of the environmental facts, they will be even more inclined to change their behavior.  The sheer numbers are staggering. In 2007, Americans drank an average 218 bottles of water each for a total of 66 billion bottles. Of that total, only 23% was recycled which means roughly 50 billion plastic water bottles ended up in U.S. landfills – that’s 140 million every day!  That’s enough bottles, laid end to end, to reach from NJ to China and back every day. In addition to the plastic bottles, over 380 billion plastic bags are consumed in the U.S. each year and less than 3% are recycled.  Recycling is good, but not enough.  Reusable is the better solution!

So what’s the problem with plastics anyway? First of all, it takes over 700 years for plastic to decompose so plastic pollution is a world-wide problem.  There is a growing “garbage patch” of plastic estimated to be more than twice the size of Texas floating in the North Pacific Ocean that is negatively impacting ecosystems and wildlife.  Also, the production and distribution of disposable plastic water bottles uses unnecessary amounts of water and oil, both of which are finite natural resource.  It takes THREE bottles of water and ½ cup of oil to make and ship ONE disposable bottle of water.  Currently, the amount of oil we use to produce water bottles each year (17 million barrels) could fuel over one million cars for an entire year!

Now the solution! Schools can offer Back2Tap reusable bottles, customized with their school logo, in a 12oz lunchbox size, 18oz everyday size and 27oz sports size.  The bottles are made of food grade stainless steel, which is BPA free and doesn’t leach any harmful chemicals and have wide, smooth necks to be able to easily put in ice and keep the bottles clean. Plus the kids love their school logo on the bottle!  Back2Tap also offers Wrap-n-mat sandwich wraps and snackTAXI snack pouches for a completely litter-free lunch solution. 

And to make your fundraiser most successful, try to tie it in with a school event such as Back2School, Spirit Wear, Holiday Boutiques or Earth Day. Once the kids see the bottles with their logos and the fun patterns on the sandwich wraps and snack taxis, they’re sure to want to be part of the “move to reuse”.  Litter-free lunch fundraisers are definitely one of the hottest new school fundraiser ideas of the year!

And just how much money can a school make? Most schools can earn about $4.00 per bottle and $2.00 per sandwich wrap or snack pouch.  So, for example, if a school of 500 kids sells 250 Litter-free lunch kits, they would earn about $1,500!  And what some schools have been doing to really go “bottle-free” is to use the money raised from the fundraiser to buy a bottle-less water cooler.  That way the kids can fill up their new Back2Tap bottles with cold, filtered tap water.  A truly eco-friendly program!

Now is the time to start reducing the amount of disposable plastic your school generates while raising money for your school.  One of the great new school fundraiser ideas that is a real “win-win” – for your school and the planet!

Help GREEN Your Community –

          and Earn Some GREEN For Your School!

Would you like to raise money for your school without having to do any work?

Just send us the contact information for a school or group that you believe would be interested in running the Back₂Tap program to reduce their use of disposable plastic.  If they end up running the program, we’ll send you 50¢ for every bottle and $.25 for every SnackTAXI or Wrap-N-Mat the school or group buys.

It’s that simple!

You help us spread the word about reducing the use of disposable plastic and we’ll send your school money to put towards whatever your school needs.

For more information about our School Referral program or to send us your lead information, please contact us at annwhitman@back2tap.com or call 866-B2T-3453.

Back2Tap offers free downloadable educational resources, including a fun 9 minute video about the wastefulness of bottled water and everything you need to know about tap water, suitable for ages K-8, but guaranteed to be enlightening to high school students and adults, too. Classroom activities include making a bottle tower out of discarded disposable plastic water bottles, conducting a drinking container survey, collecting and categorizing waste for a day, and more.  These resources will raise students’ environmental awareness and their understanding of sustainability and are well suited for either an Earth Day assembly or for classroom activities.

The educational program can be followed up by our green fundraising campaign.  Back2Tap partners with a representative from a PTO/PTA, Boosters, faculty, or student group to sell high quality stainless steel water bottles with custom logos to members of your school community.  Do something good for the planet and for your budget with our Back2Tap campaign!  To learn more about our program, please visit Schools & Groups page on our website or contact us with any questions.

EWG studied the “transparency” of 173 varieties of bottled water.  That is, they evaluated how well the bottled water companies provided information about the water’s source, purification methods and results of purity testing.  Turns out, for over half of the brands, very little is revealed about where the water came from, how it was treated, and what’s actually in it.  The bottled water companies like it this way.  They have been fighting hard against labeling even in the midst of serious public criticism for lack of accountability.

The most shocking finding was that 8 of the 10 best-selling domestic brands earned a D or an F.   So the mainstream brands (can you say Coke, Pepsi, and Nestle?) that you may have thought you could trust are resisting accountability.  What do they have to hide?  What is in their water?

In 2007, California passed a law requiring basic information on bottled water labels.  Of the 96 brands inspected there, only 24 complied with this new law.  Surprisingly, the California bottled water labels were less forthcoming than brands sold elsewhere!

If you’d like to see how your bottled water stacks up, you can visit the EWG report card.   Hopefully, your brand didn’t earn itself a place on the EWG “Shelf of Shame”!

The only A went to filtered tap water.  If you are drinking bottled water because you think it’s “better” than tap water, think again!   Unlike bottled water, tap water quality is strictly regulated.  Consumers have access to reports about their water’s source, testing protocol, and test results.   If you want to drink the best tasting, healthiest, cheapest, and most carbon-conscious drink, fill your reusable stainless steel water bottle with your own tap water, filtered if you like!

1. Reusable bottles for drinks on the go. 

2. Reusable sandwich wraps and snack pouches for litter-less lunches.

3. Reusable grocery bags and produce bags to keep in the trunk of your car.

4. Reusable bags that are compact enough to fit into your purse or pocket for small purchases.

5. Reusable coffee mugs to take with you to the coffee shop or work.
 

6. Reusable cloths and rags for cleaning up the kitchen and the rest of the house.

7. Reusable cloth napkins with napkin rings for each member of your household.

8. Reusable containers for bringing food home from restaurants and to parties.

There is a vast array of reusable products that can help make disposable plastic a thing of the past in your home. Please share your Re-Use-Solutions with us by leaving a comment!

The results are startling!  If you drink one bottle of water per day and pay $1.50 for it each time, you are spending an extra $550 on water!  Even if you buy your bottled water very cheaply most of the time, you will still be wasting over $150 each year. The $10-15 investment in a high quality stainless water bottle seems like a bargain by comparison! 

On top of the cost savings you will achieve by using a refillable bottle, there are obvious environmental benefits as well.  The calculator also estimates the impact of your bottled water habit on the planet.  For the one-bottle-a-day person, an extra 114 gallons of water, 37 megajoules of energy, and 9 gallons of oil will be wasted as well as 68 pounds of CO2 generated.

If you'd like to reduce your impact and fatten your wallet, check out Back2Tap for your best value in high quality stainless steel water bottles.

Access to tap water 

Provide access to drinking water throughout the school by maintaining water fountains and cleaning them daily.  Better yet, upgrade to bottle-less water coolers in the cafeteria and in hallways and install a water filter on the tap in the teachers’ lounge.  Offering chilled filtered tap water will allay concerns about the spreading of germs at the water fountains, taste of tap water, and water quality. 

Bottles that are reusable 

Request that students, teachers, parents, and other visitors to the school bring their own reusable bottles or mugs to school each day and to all special events. Consider having a reusable bottle fundraiser or simply issuing school water bottles to every student.  Custom stainless steel water bottles with the school logo are a big hit with students.  Monies raised can be used to fund water coolers! 

Containers for serving 

Pitchers filled from the faucet or from water coolers can be used to serve tap water to students in their class rooms.  Large portable coolers filled with the help of a pitcher can be used to dispense tap water at large gatherings.  For those who forget their reusable bottles, it is important to have some biodegradable disposable cups on hand and a recycling bin to collect them. 

Bottle free bliss

All in all, becoming a bottle free school is not as daunting as it sounds.  Life was good BBW!  Putting the ABCs in place is easier and cheaper than you’d expect.  The key to getting cooperation from the entire community will be establishing and communicating a school-wide bottled water policy and letting everyone know you’ve got the ABCs covered.

You’ll be glad you did because eliminating bottled water at your school will simplify planning and clean up for events, reduce the volume of waste, save parents money, model a sustainable lifestyle for students, as well as reap significant environmental benefits for everyone.