Bring Your Own Bottle (BYOB)
BYOB was formerly CHEER.
Help make UW a bottled water free zone!
BYOB is part of a nation-wide movement working closely with a network of organizations in this effort along with over 60 other campuses. Lets put a stop to this unsustainable practice and support campus-wide public water options.
Five reasons to Ban the Bottle on Campus:
- Bottled water leads to water shortages
- Bottled water contributes to climate change
- Our landfills cannot support bottled water
- Bottled water is not safer
- Water is a human right and should be available as a public service.
More details on the 5 reasons:
Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, Maude Barlow says that “today nearly one-third of Canadian households drink bottled water to meet their hydration needs” as it increasingly seen as a safer option to public tap water. These corporations are extracting groundwater and tapping into natural springs, taking what is a “free” ecosystem service (the production of fresh water) and selling it for massive profits, while society must deal with the consequences of massive waste products (less than half of the bottles are actually recycled) + (increasingly significant contributions to climate change).
As well, more than one-quarter of bottled water in Canada is extracted from municipal taps. This is undermining the security of what is known as the public commons. The energy used to create and transport the plastic bottles to be sold at the university leads to greenhouse gas emissions contributing to global climate change and unfortunately a very small percentage of plastic bottles reach recycling plants, but this process is also energy intensive.
Join the Action Group:
Come to one of our weekly meetings, Mondays at 2:30pm in the WPIRG office. Join us on Facebook!
Brief Updates
Fall Semester 2010: This semester the group is focusing on getting a petition to ban the sale of bottle water on campus. We are planning to use Facebook to help get the petition viral online and will circulate hard copies on campus at key locations such as student coffee shops. Join the campaign!
Summer Semester 2010: Care about water issues? Link up with BYOB! The first meeting will be announced shortly. For now, check out the information below about what we have accomplished so far. Email erin@wpirg.org and ask to join BYOB mailing list!
Winter Semester, 2010: This past semester BYOB contacted the University of Waterloo Board of Governors. We delivered a message encouraging the university administration to ban the sale and distribution of bottled water on campus, while supporting campus-wide public water options, particularly public water fountains. (This will be soon be available as a PDF download).
2009: BYOB undertook a campus wide water fountain audit to determine the status of each water fountain in all buildings inside Ring Road. The primary result of the audit is that overall, the campus is ready to be bottled water free, but some upgrades and repairs to existing water fountains, and the installation of new fountains is advised. Information from the audit can be used to recommend where upgrades, repairs or new fountains are needed. This is something that BYOB would be happy to assist with.
Joining the movement across Canada. Due to the growing momentum of this issue, there is an abundance of resources to assist in the success of the campaign. We are working closely with several organizations including:
Polaris Institute (Inside the Bottle) and the Council of Canadians. Both provide excellent materials for building sustainable water campaigns on university campuses.
We are also linked up with the Canadian Federation of Students, and the Sierra Youth Coalition.
On campus we are linked up with the University of Waterloo Sustainability Project (UWSP) and theSustainable Technology Education Project (STEP).
Learn more about why bottled water is an important issue.
Watch this short film called “The Story of Bottled Water”
There are over 67 Canadian campuses currently working to raise awareness and action on water privatization!Within the past 13 months SIX campuses have signed Bottled Water Free Pledges. BYOB believes that the University of Waterloo should be next!
The SIX campuses are (Click on the link for the Campus Press Release):
· University of Winnipeg (March 22, 2009)
· Memorial University (September 8, 2009)
· Brandon University (December 17, 2009)
· Ryerson University (March 11, 2010)
· Fleming College Frost Campus (April 8, 2010)
· University of Ottawa (April 22, 2010)
UW can build on this momentum and this experience.
Contact Us: We are constantly looking to expand our network and welcome all who are interested in working in an environment of collaborative decision making, with a specific focus on campus and local community issues.
