Bottled water to dry up on campus by 2013
Ryerson has vowed to ditch bottled water by 2013 and the people in charge are willing to put it in writing.
The pledge will be signed on Mar. 11, coinciding with Bottled Water Free Day, an initiative supported by the Canadian Federation of Students. Ryerson President Sheldon Levy, Ryerson Students’ Union President Jermaine Bagnall and Continuing Education Students’ Association of Ryerson President Mohammad Ali Aumeer, will sign the pledge.
The ban will impact the university’s contract with Coca-Cola, which allows the corporation exclusive rights to sell beverages on campus. In return, Ryerson gets $765,000 a year if enough products are sold, with the bulk of the money going to scholarships, bursaries and athletics.
“Bottled water is their No. 1 selling product on the campus,” said John Corallo, Ryerson’s director of ancillary services.
He said he’s contacted Coke about the future ban, but he has yet to hear back.
The RSU has campaigned for the university to ban water bottle sales and increase water fountains since their semi-annual general meeting last November.
But the RSU’s goal has been delayed.
“It’s a little bit further than we’d initially called for, but I think it makes sense,” said Liana Salvador, RSU vice-president education.
“Our big thing was that we wanted to be the first [in Ontario].”
Three campuses in Canada have already banned the sale of water bottles.
The university needs to make sure there are enough alternatives on campus, said Linda Grayson, vice-president administration and finance.
“There is no way it can be sooner,” said Grayson.
She said Ryerson’s administration immediately agreed to the ban but it will take three years to get the campus ready.
Old water fountains need to be fixed, a water bottle filling station is being piloted and the sale of bottled water will be phased out.
The RSU is working to make the Student Centre bottled water free.
At first, Levy was unsure about banning bottled water on campus.
“By saying bottled water is bad for you, I’m going to take it away and I’m going to give you a water fountain,” said Levy last November.
“That’s sort of treating you like a child.”
Comments
Anonymous, 4 months ago said:
If you are going to do this then you have to push it completely. This means that plastic bottles period should be "banned" from campus and not just bottled water (this includes juices, pop, etc) otherwise you first off will not make any real impact in terms of the environmental impact if you don't push for a plastic bottle ban. Second, as far as I see it if students are dumb enough to pay $1, $2 etc for something that has been proven to be WORSE FOR THEM then as far as I see it this ban would be rather useless. Ban it all or not at all.
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Anonymous, 4 months ago said:
The act of banning bottled water is about more than just minimizing the number of plastic bottles that are manuafactured and then end up in landfills. By purchasing bottled water we are buying into marketting strategy that bottled water companies use - that is, fear. They convince us that tap water is bad or contaminated and that bottled water is safer. This is simply not true. Secondly, by purchasing bottled water we show support for the privitization of water. If water is recognized as a commodity and not a human right, only those who will be able to afford water will have access to water. This is a social sustainability issue.
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