Refill not landfill a bottler of an idea

Clayton campus students who want to kick the bottled water habit will soon find it much easier to do with the upgrade and installation of up to 30 drinking fountains across the campus by the end of October.

The drinking fountains will provide filtered water throughout the campus so that students have easy access to drinking water so that they can refill a water bottle and not only save their money but also help cut the University’s waste.

Bottled water is an environmental problem in Australia and worldwide because its production and distribution emits hundreds of times more greenhouse gases than the equivalent amount of tap water. Bottled water also adds to Australia’s waste burden, with Australians recycling fewer than half of the plastic drink bottles they buy. 

The Office of Environmental Sustainability initiated this project when it learned that the scarcity of drinking fountains meant that students often had no choice but to refill their water bottles in toilet areas – with most preferring to buy bottled water instead. The new fountains all have fittings that allow water bottles to be refilled.

To help promote the new and improved water fountains the Office of Environmental Sustainability commissioned Tarli Bird (Pictured), a Master of Fine Art student at Monash, to create a number of installations that use discarded water bottles to highlight that it is better to refill, not landfill, a water bottle.

The program to improve the University’s water fountains will be extended to all campuses over the coming year.

Pictured right is another of Tarly's water installations.