SustainDal pushes for bottled water ban
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If a ban is put in place, students will no longer be able to purchase bottled water on campus (Photo: Laura Conrad)
SustainDal's water committee is advocating to eliminate bottled water at Dalhousie University, saying it will make the campus more sustainable.
Committee coordinator Gillian Pritchard says the positive ecological impacts are clear.
"Some people have access to one kind of water, others don't," she says. "But in Halifax, we have access to some of the best drinking water in North America. It doesn't make sense (to purchase bottled water) when it uses more oil and costs a lot of money."
The SustainDal water committee has been pushing for better drinking water options on campus since 2008. The water committee maintains that plastic water bottles produce millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases. This could be avoided if more people chose tap water instead.
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A Blue W decal means the location offers tap water at no cost (Photo: Laura Conrad)
Bans in other schools
University of Winnipeg
The University of Winnipeg was the first university in Canada to ban bottled water in 2009. They held a student referendum and vote on the ban, results were 70 per cent yes. They eliminated bottled water from their Pepsi contract, but sales of approximately 70,000 were made up by other products such as Vitamin Water, so bottle usage was actually the same. They installed approximately $50,000 worth of fountains and do not use bottled water in any food services or catering.
Memorial University
Memorial's Student Union took a pledge in 2009 to progressively eliminate bottled water on campus. The pledge says the university will "Progressively and systematically eliminate the distribution of plastic bottled water at all University events and, through environmental and health education programming, achieve the ultimate goal of a university community that is bottled water free."
"I think (the bottled water initiative) is really important," Pritchard says. "It's a sustainability thing. Bottled water is also much less regulated - not all bottles are recycled. Why are we wasting the resources?"
Language of the proposal
The water committee drafted a water policy for Dalhousie to demonstrate what the ban would look like. The potential ban would focus primarily on eliminating the sales of bottled water by major campus vendors, as well as banning sales of bottled water at campus events. The university would then focus on renewing fountain infrastructure and making tap water more accessible.
Rochelle Owen, director of Dalhousie's Office of Sustainability, says it's important to consider the language in this kind of policy.
"The word ‘ban' could have a different context if you take it literally," she says. "A ban indicates that you're getting rid of bottled water everywhere. This is just a first step."
If the new policy is put in place, students will still be able to drink bottled water on campus; they just won't be able to buy it from campus vendors.
"We're not going to be policing to keep students from drinking bottled water," says Pritchard. "We're more or less trying to stop the sale of it."
Gaining popularity
The SustainDal water committee has been looking into results from Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland where they recently began to progressively eliminate bottled water on campus.
Pritchard is enthusiastic about Dal looking into similar initiatives, although she doesn't want to echo the students at Memorial.
"We're largely doing our own thing," she says. "All universities are so different; it's hard to share the same ideas."
The Dalhousie Office of Sustainability is currently working with facilities management to test all water on campus. This will happen before any decisions are made regarding the ban.
The SustainDal water committee is also taking other initiatives to improve drinking water options at Dalhousie. Two weeks ago, they had Blue W decals placed at six different location on campus.
Blue W is a non profit organization that recognizes the efforts of municipal water providers. If a location hosts a Blue W decal, it means people can go to that location and ask for tap water without feeling pressured to make a purchase.
On Friday the water committee will also be holding a tap water challenge in the lobby of the Student Union Building. The purpose of the challenge is to see whether or not students and public can taste the difference between tap and bottled water.
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