HvA students battle against canteen selling water in plastic bottles
Despite more than fifty Join the Pipe water tapping points being installed on HvA and UvA campuses to help discourage the sale of plastic water bottles, the HvA and the UvA continue to sell thousands of plastic bottles of Chaudfontaine in their own canteens every year, much to the irk of HvA students Joris Kemna (33) and Leon ten Have (25).
‘We have the best tap water in the world. Why would we drink spring water?’, says Leon. His friend Joris agrees: ‘Isn’t it idiotic to have all those water points, advertise them and then also sell exactly the same plastic bottles you want to replace surrounded by marketing that makes them out to be natural and green?!’
Canteens
In June 2016, Joris and Leon sent a letter to the University Board that brought them into contact with the new university caterer, Cormet. This was a key move. One year later, Joris and Leon are working together with Cormet to organise an awareness campaign at the HvA and the UvA wherein they promote the more sustainable bottles of Join the Pipe — made to be refilled and last a couple of years. Next semester the price of these Join the Pipe bottles will be significantly lower and, eventually, the students hope to stop the sale of the throw away plastic bottles altogether.
Cormet, however, is not considering removing the plastic bottles from its shelves: the product is just too important for their business model. Joris: ‘Of course we still aspire to remove the spring water from the canteens, but for now we’re happy for the collaboration.’
