[Music: “Jog to the Water” by Blue Dot Sessions]
[NatSnd by Pixabay]: *Man sipping water*
[NatSnd by Pixabay]: *Water bottle being crushed*
You’re coming back from a late night out and about, and you’re starving. You check your phone: it’s past 10 — all the dining halls are closed. Lisa’s it is! As you grab your warm, cheesy quesadilla from the counter, you look to your left and see a stack of water bottles. To grab or not to grab? On one hand, you’re thirsty, and you did technically pay for it. But on the other hand, you know plastic waste is bad for the environment. (And, let’s be real, who actually likes Dasani?)
Thanks to the Northwestern Associated Student Government, or ASG, you will no longer have to face this choice. During Winter quarter, ASG passed a bill to remove all plastic water bottles from campus restaurants and vending machines. Although the sustainability committee is still in deliberations with Northwestern administrators, they expect the bill will be implemented by the start of next school year.
Weinberg third-year and ASG senator, Hamza Haq, explained the administration’s role in eliminating water bottles from the on-campus restaurants.
Hamza Haq: “Admin would basically just request that they stop giving free water bottles with their meals.”
Haq added that, while he wasn’t sure if administration would completely remove the water bottles from campus, he was confident that, overall, the bill would decrease plastic waste.
Haq: “Even if the resolution isn’t very successful, at the very least the water bottles will stop being free. But I’m pretty confident that admin will be able to get rid of all plastic water bottles. Whether or not it’ll be replaced by any sort of alternative, I don’t think so, because they’re too expensive.”
While you probably won’t see paper or aluminum water bottles populating the checkout stations at your favorite Norris lunch spot, the ASG resolution aims to replace the water bottles with more water fountains and refill stations. Senators also discussed more sustainable ways of ensuring everyone had access to water.
Haq: “They mentioned, I think, not just Northwestern, but Northwestern dining giving reusable water bottles, similar to the reusable green plastic containers that you can get at the dining hall.”
Weinberg first-year Nina Gupta is excited about the change:
Nina Gupta: “I think that getting rid of the water bottles in meal exchanges is a really good idea, and I’m really surprised that this bill hasn’t been passed earlier given the university’s initiatives to become more sustainable and climate-friendly. I definitely think that the water bottles are a big part of the waste accumulated here on campus.”
Haq agreed with Gupta’s sentiment on the environment, adding that health concerns and taste factored into his decision to avoid the plastic water bottles.
Haq: “I personally choose not to drink out of water bottles, for, like, obviously sustainability reasons, and also reports on how many microplastics are in plastic water bottles, so I just don’t think they’re healthy either. And honestly, it just doesn’t really make sense to me because the free water they usually give you isn’t even that good, like, quality.”
But not all students feel the same: Haq recalled conversations he had with his friends after the ASG vote.
Haq: “When I talked about it to other people, like my friends, they were not happy with the fact that I voted for the resolution. They were like “What the hell, why would you do that?” because they like free water with their food.”
Even in ASG, the resolution was contentious. Senators that were opposed to the bill were concerned with the lack of a clear replacement for the plastic water bottles. In the end, Haq said, the bill only passed by a handful of votes.
Haq: “It was just a close vote. I guess a lot of people were not with it, with the idea.”
[Music in]
Even though the vote was close, the bill gave both Gupta and Haq more confidence in the role of ASG.
Gupta: “I know that some people will choose not to get water bottles because they carry their own reusable water bottles, but I think even getting rid of the option is a step in the right direction and I’m really glad that ASG voted on this bill.”
Haq added that a lot of the resolutions that usually pass in ASG are,
Haq: “We need to recognize this, we need to recognize this. Which is like, okay, it just ending up, like, making a post or something like that. Versus this is something that I think will make a pretty drastic dent in the plastic usage, at least in this community at school here at Northwestern.”
ASG has more sustainable resolutions on the horizon: recently, Weinberg first-year and ASG senator Eliza Marcus introduced a bill to add reusable to-go cups in the dining hall. In doing so, the dining services will cut down on paper waste from the coffee cups.
For WNUR News, I’m Gabby Shell.
[Music out]
