The University of Canberra will become the first Australian campus to ban the sale of bottled water the Sydney Morning Herald reports. It’s believed to be the largest ban of its kind in Australia and the first across a university. Organisers say the ban will stop 140,000 PET plastic bottles from being sold annually.
Instead, in campus cafes and shops students will have access to Azure water vending machines that refill a 600-millilitre drinking bottle with chilled water for $1 or sparkling water for $1.50 – cheaper than standard 500ml PET bottles.
Mark Rhodes, Marketing Manager for The Really Cool Water Company comments: “Our distributor partner based in Sydney has obviously been very proactive with placements of the Azure and it just goes to show there are eco-friendly and viable alternatives to 500ml PET bottles. As an industry, we need to face up to the fact that our customers are not as pro PET bottles as they once were and change is coming!”
