Abstract
Water bottling industry has negative environmental impacts due to exploitation and possible pollution of water resources and due to solid waste problems related to the use of plastic bottles. To mitigate these impacts, it is important to study the link between consuming bottled drinking water and the perception of its quality. The objective of the study is to assess the perception of Birzeit University students' of the bottled water marketed in the West Bank and its impact on the humans and the environment. Universities play an important role in providing awareness about environmental issues and sustainability, and university students are thought to be more environmentally conscious about these issues. A quantitative survey was used to analyze the behaviors and perceptions of Birzeit University students. The sample size was 375 students, distributed according to the college, gender, and the academic year at the university. The results show that the factors that affect the perception of the students are mainly the educational year at the university, the income, the family size, and the community type.
Highlights
The level of perception of the quality of bottled water and its impact on the humans and the environment has an effect on the development of transparency and credibility of the responsible institutions in the aspect of drinking water quality improvement
Most families depended on tap water which might be an indication for the high quality of tap water or they cannot afford extra expenses for an external drinking water source
The analysis of the data showed that the factors that affect the perception of the students are mainly the educational year at the university, the income, the family size, and the community type
Summary
The level of perception of the quality of bottled water and its impact on the humans and the environment has an effect on the development of transparency and credibility of the responsible institutions in the aspect of drinking water quality improvement. Media plays an essential role in advertising the bottled water, while education plays a different role in raising the awareness about the quality and negative or positive impacts of bottled water [1]. There are differences in the perception of people in regard to how they assess the quality of bottled water. Universities play an important role in providing awareness to the students about the elements of the environment and sustainability principles. University students are thought to be more environmentally conscious than others who tend to adopt a sustainability attitude [4]
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