Northwestern to phase out bottled water despite study that found trash increased after ban

When the University of Vermont banned bottled water from its campus, in a bid to reduce plastic waste, it completely backfired: Waste went up and students consumed more sugar, because they started drinking way more sugary drinks.

Hanging out free reusable bottles and retrofitting water fountains to fill them didn’t help.

Northwestern University must be hoping that its population is less quintessentially American, because it’s following the Vermont playbook to a tee, though not banning bottled water in one fell swoop, The Daily Northwestern reports:

The University has already reduced bottled water products in the Norris University Center C-store by 50 percent, Julie Payne-Kirchmeier, associate vice president for student affairs, told The Daily in an email.

She said the University aims to phase out an additional 25 percent of the products in Norris in the winter and then the final 25 percent in the spring. Once the system is tested in Norris, Student Affairs will move toward reducing bottled water in the C-stores in Foster-Walker Complex and 1835 Hinman, which the department also controls.

The plan has support from student and faculty governing bodies, but it may founder on the athletic-event portion of the phase-out. According to Rob Whittier, director of the Office of Sustainability:

“We don’t want to take away bottled water at athletic events until there is an alternate. The worst case is then they turn to a sugar beverage.”

Guess what’s the alternative?

[Whittier] said there are more than 50 water filling stations between the Evanston and Chicago campuses, but there are still some key locations such as certain residence halls that do not have any. Another alternative is selling reusable water bottles at the C-stores.

Get ready for Northwestern trash cans and waistlines to bulge.

Read the article.

Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter

IMAGE: BobBBrown/Flickr