Recently, McGill has announced that it will be phasing out the sale of single-use bottled water, so that by May 1, 2019, non-carbonated water will no longer be sold in retailers and in vending machines on campus. The decision was announced in a campus-wide email sent on behalf of François Miller, the director of the McGill Office of Sustainability on March 21st, the day before World Water Day.
An estimated 85 000 bottles of water are sold by McGill’s self-operated and contract food service locations every year. Although most plastic bottles are recyclable, the truth is, not all of them are actually recycled. The Guardian reported that fewer than half of the bottles purchased in 2016 were collected for recycling. The remainder end up in the environment, either in landfills or in oceans. The manufacture and transport of single-use plastic water bottles also does a number on our environment, since these processes depend heavily upon fossil fuels. In fact, it takes 3 litres of water to produce every litre of bottled water.
Moreover, according to Miller, it is largely unnecessary to be relying on bottled water since we are fortunate enough in Montreal to have safe, potable water provided by the municipality. The Office also believes that since water is a basic human right, it should not be bought and sold as a commodity.
This ban on single-use plastic water bottles is not the first to be seen at McGill. The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) and the Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) have both passed resolutions before banning the sale of bottled water in retail locations under their jurisdiction. Back in 2009, SSMU passed a motion to end the sale of bottled water in the University Centre (also known as the SSMU building). Other Canadian universities have also already passed similar motions. The University of Winnipeg, Memorial University of St. John’s and Brandon University in Manitoba first announced their decision to ban bottled water sales in 2009. Since then, several other Canadian universities have followed suit, such as the University Ottawa (2010), University of Toronto (2011), and Concordia University (2012), among others.
In addition to banning the sale of bottled water on campus, the McGill Office of Sustainability announced that they would be installing and upgrading a minimum of 25 water fountains on campus. These water fountains will be located near food vendors and in other high-traffic areas. The Le James bookstore will also be selling a new line of reusable and affordable water bottles to encourage McGill students to stop buying bottled water. Lastly, the McGill Office of Sustainability will be working with event organizers to significantly reduce or eliminate the amount of bottled water that is distributed at McGill events as well.
Information obtained from:
http://publications.mcgill.ca/reporter/2018/03/mcgill-to-ban-sale-of-bottled-water-on-campus/
https://www.mcgill.ca/sustainability/initiatives/waste-and-recycling/bottled-water
https://ssmu.ca/blog/2009/10/ssmu-institutes-ban-on-water-bottle-sales-in-university-centre/
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/bottled-water-sales-banned-at-ottawa-campus-1.900754
https://ueat.utoronto.ca/why-ban-the-bottle/
Image sources:
Cover image from Wikimedia Commons