A few weeks back, the Camosun College Student Society hosted Sustainability Day, which coincided with National Bottled Water Free Day. This is the reason why there were a bunch of plastic water and pop bottles in the fountain next to Dawson building.
We did this because one in three Canadians drink bottled water as their main source and because water, a publicly owned resource, is being increasingly privatized to the detriment of our wallets, health, and environment.
I could go on about the amount of plastic water bottles that end up in the landfill every year, or the toxic carcinogens that get emitted in the manufacturing of water bottles. I could elaborate how the bottled-water industry is hardly regulated, or how over 900 million people worldwide lack access to clean drinking water. But instead I’d like to remind you that bottled water is, by my calcuations, 744 times more expensive than local tap water here in the Capital Regional District.
It’s for all these reasons and more that the Sierra Youth Coalition has started the Back the Tap campaign to get educational institutions to ban bottled-water sales on campus and to get students to pledge to drink tap water.
Camosun College has already agreed to phase out bottled water sales and provide enough water refilling stations around campus for students.
While eliminating bottled water on campus may seem like a daunting task, it’s really quite easy. All you have to do is buy a reusable water bottle, fill it up every day, then just enjoy watching the savings trickle in.