Bottled Water on Campus

Ingrid: The student union should ban the sale of bottled water everywhere on campus. We installed thirty refill stations last year, so there's no excuse, and the vending machines sell about forty thousand plastic bottles a term.

Tariq: I'm against a ban on principle. If the sugary drinks stay in the machine and only water disappears, you're nudging students toward the less healthy option, which is exactly backwards.

Chloe: I'd look at it from the catering side, since I work there part-time. Bottled water is our highest-margin item, and that income funds the free breakfast scheme for students on hardship grants.

Ingrid: I didn't know about the breakfast link, Chloe. Still, surely the same money could come from selling reusable bottles at the till instead.

Tariq: A one-off bottle sale won't match a weekly habit. What about a deposit scheme instead, where a bottle costs an extra pound that you get back at the refill station?

Chloe: A deposit keeps the revenue and gets the plastic back for recycling, so I could get behind that. It also keeps water available for people who forget their bottle.

Ingrid: It's not the clean break I wanted, but a deposit with a review after one year is a reasonable test. If sales barely drop, we revisit the ban.