The last bottle of water was sold in LUU on Monday 1st February.
Free water fountains have been installed to take its place, and a range of reusable bottles are being sold in Essentials.
LS:TV were there to report on the bottled water ban, gathering student responses as well as looking at the implications of LUU no longer selling bottled water.
See the story behind the bottled water ban below, to not only get a glimpse of how you democracy at LUU works, but also to see how you can create the changes you want to see happen through effective campaigning.
The story
Ally Vernon, a student at Leeds, read a magazine article. The article warned of the massive carbon footprint of bottled water production. She decided to share it with her friends. Together they wrote a referendum motion, a proposal: as water comes out the tap - with a far smaller cost to both student’s wallets and the environment, bottled water in LUU should be replaced with water fountains and refillable bottles.
The motion was submitted to Referendum and the students of Leeds were given a choice to vote for or against the proposal. The motion received 2701 YES and 864 NO votes.
LUU quickly took on delivering the changes outlined in the motion; installing two water fountains and a range of high quality refillable bottles. By February 2010 LUU will not sell bottled water in its shops – instead there will be water fountains all round the union for you to get free drinking water fill up for free.
Not selling bottled water at LUU will mean saving 632,433 litres of water, place 146,365 fewer plastic bottles in landfill sites and save 22,587 litres of oil every year! Two other Unions and even a small town in Australia have reduced or banned bottled since LUU. Big changes are easy at LUU – you just have to believe that they’re possible.