By ALEXANDRA GRANT

The Langara Students' Union is taking steps toward banning water bottles in the Student Union Building. Photo by Alexandra Grant

Plastic water bottles may soon disappear from the Langara Students’ Union Building if the first phase of a bottle ban is successful.

The first step is to make LSU-funded events water bottle free. LSU board member at large Eli Zbar said that the union will gauge students’ reactions to the ban and adjust its development accordingly.

“By starting small we can foster a community that embraces environmental action,” said Zbar. “We’re just doing this to test the waters and get a feel for how students react.”

If students’ reactions are positive, the union’s next step will be to stop selling water bottles in the student union building. Zbar said that the union would like to eventually develop a “two-pronged” approach, focusing on not only the SUB but also the college itself.

Bottles on campus crucial to student funding

Jay Strachan, the Director of Facilities and Purchasing at Langara, said that this is unlikely to happen.

Though the LSU has the power to ban plastic water bottles in the independently operated SUB, banning them throughout the college is out of its scope of control. It would also have adverse effects for students, according to Strachan.

“All the tins and bottles that are collected in the college, the revenue from that goes towards student bursaries,” he said. “If we put a ban on bottles, we reduce student bursaries.”

Water may be healthier, but sale of pop cans too lucrative to ban

Dietetics student Debbie Penner is supportive of the environmental initiative, but has concerns regarding the dietary implications of the ban.

“I’d be more worried about pop, especially diet pop, rather than bottled water,” said Penner. “It should be anything in that plastic container if they consider banning bottles.”

Zbar said the LSU will not ban pop because of sponsorship deals with soft drink vendors.

“We can’t just get pop and everything banned because a lot of the revenue we get [comes] from pop,” he said.

Several schools across Canada have successfully implemented water bottle bans on campus. Toni O’Keeffe, the executive director of Vancouver Island University’s communications department, said that students and faculty on VIU’s Cowichan Campus have reacted very positively to the first stages of the school’s ban.

Bottle-free Canadian campuses

• Fleming College, Ont.
• Concordia University, Que.
  
• Brandon University, Manitoba & University of Winnipeg (province-wide ban)
• Memorial University of Newfoundland
• University of Ottawa, Ont.
• Queen's University, Ont.
  
• Ryerson University, Ont.
  
• Trent University, Ont.