Last year, Solon High School (SHS) added new water fountains that have a spout and sensor to fill up your water bottle in order to improve the water flow and cleanliness. The fountains are made by Elkay and are called ezH20. Elkay’s website claims that the plastic has a silver ion that prevents the growth of mold and mildew.

The water fountains have a counter for how many bottles are being saved. Every time a person fills up a water bottle, the display, a green digital counter in the top right corner of the fountain, updates to show how many 20 oz. bottles it has saved. As of Oct. 9, 2018 the 13 ezH20 fountains in SHS saved 129,176 bottles.

Principal Erin Short said one of the goals at SHS is to limit the waste coming out of the building, and the fountains help to achieve this

“[The fountains are a] positive double edged sword that we could give kids higher quality water, which is healthy for them and also reduce our output waste and recyclable materials,” Short said.

The new fountains are more sanitary which seems to encourage more students to use the fountains. They have an easy fill-up ability where you can put your bottle in front of the sensor to trigger it instead of pushing a button manually which can potentially spread germs. SHS senior Elizabeth Dillon is crediting the new fountains to her improved hydration.

“If [SHS] didn’t have [the water fountains] and they had the old crusty ones I wouldn’t be hydrated like I am now,” said Dillon.

As expected with any change, not all of the students are thrilled. The water conditions are not up to par for SHS senior Erin Obert.

“The new water fountains are warm,” said Obert.

Despite this fact, the numbers don’t lie. The ezH20 fountains have done their job by decreasing waste coming out of SHS significantly, and Short said she hopes this will spark more environmental change.

“The more we can focus on being green and saving the planet, we absolutely will.”