A survey by the University of Hawaiʻi Office of Sustainability found that more than one million plastic bottles were kept from piling up in landfills thanks to water refill stations around the UH Mānoa campus.
Cherish Hose, a UH Mānoa student and sustainability analyst at the Office of Sustainability, led the refill station project. In June 2024, she identified which buildings on campus had a water refill station compared to a water fountain.
She found that there are a total of 38 water refill stations, and that out of all 46 upper campus buildings, 20 were equipped with a working station.
Using the digital meter on every station, she then calculated the amount of water dispensed and the equivalent of plastic bottles that were saved from landfills.
According to her survey, from June 2024 to March 2025, a total of 1,070,251 plastic bottles were saved over 273 days, amounting to about 3,920 bottles saved per day. The two stations at the Warrior Recreation Center saw the most usage with a combined 680,000 bottles saved in less than a year.
Cherish said the real number of bottles saved is most likely much higher as more stations could be installed in buildings with little to no refill options.
“The numbers prove the effectiveness of these stations,” she said. “Every bottle matters when you’re trying to minimize pollution, especially from plastic.”
A student-centered approach
Cherish, a student at UH Mānoa, said she was taken aback by students buying water from the campus market or using their meal plan swipes to fill up their bottles. Instead, she wants to spread awareness to students, faculty and community members that free water refill stations are available.
“Until I worked for the Office of Sustainability, I didn’t know that many buildings around campus have free refill stations,” she said. “I started this project to spread that awareness to the community, especially UH students.”
Through this project, Cherish hopes that students will take advantage of the current stations to both save money and decrease plastic pollution and waste from disposable water bottles.
Before she expects to graduate in December 2025, Cherish’s end goal is to spread as much awareness about the effectiveness of the current water refill stations as she advocates for more to be installed at UH Mānoa.
“Easy and free accessibility to water, especially for our busy students and faculty, is one of the most important and overlooked parts of our day-to-day lives,” she said.
— By Grant Nakasone
