September 21, 2011
University of Queensland
A new water refill station has been installed at the UQ St Lucia campus to raise student and staff awareness of the option to say no to bottled water, and save money.
The water refill station is at Staff House Road, near the Commonwealth Bank.
It is an environmental engagement and awareness initiative by the Sustainability Office in UQ’s Property and Facilities (P & F) Division.
If the trial of the first station proves successful, the University’s students and staff can expect more refilling stations to arrive at UQ before Christmas.
UQ P & F Sustainability Coordinator Suzanne Davis said that most Australians were not aware that purchasing bottled water was costly to both the environment and to the wallet.
“It probably never occurs to you that when spending to buy one standard 600ml bottled water you might as well buy 1,000 litres of tap water,” Ms Davis said.
“Every year Australians spend more than $400 million on bottled water which has a carbon footprint 300 times greater than tap water.”
Deputy Director of UQ P&F division Geoff Dennis said that bottled water was a serious environmental problem.
“After consumption, approximately 65 per cent of plastic drink bottles end up in landfill with only 35 per cent being recycled,” Mr Dennis said.
