By Evan Cooke
Loyalist College is cutting down on its consumption of plastic water bottles, and it’s only a sign of things to come.
[1]College professor and environmental practitioner, Eric Bauer. Bauer is on the colleges sustainability committee Photo by Matthew Kerr
Five new hydration stations that were installed over the course of last summer have cut down plastic water bottle sales by 7%, or close to 6000 bottles so far this year.
Scott Allison, director of Food Services for Chartwells, said that the college gave them notice about the stations, and that they didn’t have any concerns about lost business.
“We’ve always had water fountains, so the change to water stations didn’t really affect us that way,” said Allison.
Allison, who’s also on the college’s Sustainability Committee, said Chartwells has already put in some environmental initiatives that some customers may not be aware of. They include the elimination of styrofoam, biodegradable food containers, and the recycling of deep fryer oil.
But their biggest step – a potential ban on plastic water bottles – is actually being considered by the college. Allison said that while it would be a big step in sustainability, there are still a lot of issues to work out.
“It’s a very time consuming thing to figure out where you draw the line. Bottled water’s gone but vitamin water is okay, or vitamin water’s gone but pop is okay, so the college has leaned towards recycling.”
The hydration stations are like a regular water fountain, with an added ledge to fill reusable water bottles. The filtered water is a step up from the tap water that comes out of a typical drinking fountain. A built-in digital display calculates the number of 16-ounce plastic bottles that’s been saved by every re-fill. Including the installation, the student government spent about $3,500 on each station.
Maintenance Manager Grant Brummell said that he’s been taking monthly readings from the machines since February 1, and that usage in February and March has been especially high. Between September and the end of January, the five machines had saved just over 67,000 plastic bottles. In February and March alone, the number hit over 48,000, with almost 27,000 saved bottles coming in March. Of the almost 116,000 bottles all five stations had accumulated, over half of them came from the fitness centre location.
Brummell said he thinks the spike is explained by a couple of factors.
“I think the nicer weather has a lot to do with it,” he said. “And there’s a lot more awareness, more people find it every month.”
Bio-sciences professor Eric Bauer has been at the college 18 years, and has been an advocate for the college to increase its sustainability. Bauer said that the possibility of eliminating water bottles from the college completely is there, but that the college is pulled in many different directions when making that decision.
Though it would be environmentally sustainable, it would cost Chartwells, and Loyalist by extension, a lot of lost sales.
“We’re trying to prioritize in sustainability, an equal relationship between social responsibility, economic viability, and the environment. With that being said, as an environmental practitioner, I prioritize the environment over everything else.”
Bauer said that even though he’d obviously like to see a plastic bottle-free campus someday, he’s been very impressed with how well the hydration stations have been doing.
“For me, it’s all about student commitment. I could go and I could say ‘how do you feel about sustainability?’ and you might say ‘I feel really good about it’, but the proof is in, if there’s a hydration station and you’re not carrying a plastic water bottle anymore, that’s a win, and I think we have to find more and more examples like that.
Meanwhile, the college will keep adding to their collection of hydration stations. They have plans to add one to their new Link Lounge, which will be unveiled next Friday.