Supporters of the ASUO Climate Justice League’s Take Back the Tap campaign met Monday with University vice president for finance and administration Frances Dyke to promote a report that would ban the sale of bottled water by all campus vendors.
The report, supporters for which now include the Environmental Issues Committee, advocates to discontinue “the sale, purchase and distribution of single-use plastic bottles on campus” and intends to implement the policy by this summer.
The League’s TBTT proposal moved on to Dyke following the unanimous endorsement of the EIC, and the committee’s enthusiasm in supporting CJL’s report has greatly encouraged the measure’s supporters.
“With the new support of the EIC, the policy is likely to pass and be implemented over the summer to begin a sustainable, bottle-free school year in Fall 2011,” CJL member Terra Smith said in a press release.
CJL co-director Emma Newman cued up a PowerPoint presentation for the five CJL members presenting to Dyke and other faculty members during Monday’s meeting, exhibiting the work the League had already done with the report. The presentation analyzed the harm water bottles have on the environment, the potential fiscal impacts on campus businesses and the support the campaign had already garnered.
“We knew this was going to be a really good stepping stone,” Smith said after the meeting. “It’s nice to … see that we have this support. I think (the campaign) is being well-received.”
All of the meeting attendees who spoke said it was a well-organized presentation, but those present wanted to make sure the policy came to the University Senate’s floor before moving forward.
“First off, this is a very compelling and well-done presentation,” Dyke said.
Another attendee raised concerns about how the University would get water to events such as University Day — where many students and faculty spend an hour on campus spreading mulch, picking up garbage and helping to improve campus in general. However, the student presenters said the ASUO was already working on ways to accommodate large events that needed to distribute water by using containers such as coolers.
“One thing we as a community can do when making advertisements for events include(s) bring(ing) your own reusable water bottle,” Newman said.
CJL members said the University Senate’s agenda would be unavailable until October, and hoped to present the measure to the Senate Executive Committee in the meantime.
“We hoped we would have the summer to phase (water bottles) out,” said CJL member Manny Garcia, a University freshman.
Those watching the presentation suggested making educational pushes in the down time before the policy comes before the Senate, and that if students are convinced to stop buying bottled water, retail outlets would be less likely to continue selling it.
“We are hopeful that the policy will pass because the EIC is one of the gatekeepers to passing policies concerning environmental issues such as this, and we have obtained their full and unanimous support,” Smith said.
The EIC met last Wednesday to discuss the proposal and sent its endorsement along to Dyke on Thursday.
“The EIC was impressed by the analysis presented in the report and the work done already to reduce reliance upon bottled water on campus,” EIC chair Arthur Farley wrote. “The EIC was enthusiastic in its support for this effort.”
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