It amazes me that people are so passionately discussing banning water bottles while at the same time at least a third of Concordians walk around with disposable coffee cups. If anyone was really worried about being green, they would look at the bigger problem first. Coffee cups, unlike water bottles, are not recyclable, they take up a lot of space in landfills and many people mistakenly throw them in recycling bins, ruining the recyclable material that was there.
Okay, water bottles are also a problem. People should ideally carry a bottle of water and refill it. I agree with that. Now, banning the sale of bottled water on campus is not going to do much. These people are probably not water drinkers. If they were, they would have noticed that a bottle of water on campus is $1.75, much more expensive than anywhere else. They would also have noticed that most people who have water bottles don’t have Aquafina, which means they are already getting their bottled water elsewhere.
Banning the sale of bottled water on campus would only affect visitors or people who forget to bring their bottle and don’t have time to go outside to buy a bottle of water. Also, soda comes in a bottle or can. I must be missing something here, but I don’t see how drinking soda instead of water helps the planet.
Now, if anything needs a campaign, it’s the coffee cups. UdeM has banned them already, why can’t Concordia? People would still bring cups from cafes around campus, but the amount of cups sold at Tim Hortons and Java U would be worth the effort. Coffee cups are altogether evil, and unlike plastic water bottles, nobody keeps them for days to refill with more coffee.
Denise Marques Leitão
