ECU offers plastic water bottle alternative

Edith Cowan University South West will start phasing out single use plastic water bottles and straws next week as part of an initiative brought forward by its students.

ECU South West will join its two other WA campuses in restricting single use plastic water bottles on campus and at events, where they will instead provide water refill stations.

The university is also investigating increasing the number of water fountains on campus and offering free or discounted multi-use water bottles.

Kulbardi Cafe on the Bunbury campus now boasts an empty shelf in its fridge where bottled water used to be stocked and offers customers paper straws, recycled mugs and sustainable BioPak coffee cups for takeaway.

ECU South West campus dean Lyn Farrell said the university was happy to be on board and said the question “what is the cost of convenience to our planet?” had to be asked.

“We are adopting more sustainable practice with simple changes, but they can have quite a big impact considering the number of students and staff we have.

“We are not banning single use bottles, but proudly offering alternatives and encouraging people to be sustainable. I am very happy our new cafe managers are setting a positive example.”