Celebrating success! On December 5, 2012 at lunchtime on the last day of classes, UVM celebrated the end bottled water sales on campus with a Bottled Water Retirement Party, unveiling a sculpture entitled "Inherently Unstable and Prone to Collapse: A Monument to Waste" (see the news release).  UVM Art Department faculty member Beth Haggart teamed up with art students and a wide range of UVM and community members to create an arch built of used plastic beverage bottles for the event, which featured speakers, games, taste tests, and discounted water bottles. The event attracted media attention, including a December 12 editorial in the Boston Globe, Kicking the Bottled­water Habit, and articles in the Burlington Free Press, WAMC radio, and Vermont Public Radio--see below.

The student voice in this decision rang clear, with presentations at the party by former and current VSTEP leaders Mikayla McDonald (’10) and Ilana Copel (’13), and quotations in several articles. Kudos to students of VSTEP for their perseverance over many years!

A couple of corrections to this story: UVM has spent about $29,000 retrofitting fountains, not $175,000. And Smartwater will not be sold. See Bottled Water FAQs.

Social Media:

 Check out the event page on Facebook.  

Media

• Spring 2013: [University of Vermont Quarterly]  Banning the Bottles, 
   
• November 28, 2012: [UVM Communications] Celebrate the End of Bottled Water Sales on Campus at Dec. 5 Event
   
• December 5, 2012: [UVM Communications] UVM Celebrates End of Bottled Water Sales With Bottled Water ‘Retirement Party’
   
• [NECN] University of Vt. to ban bottled water sales
   

• [VPR] UVM Bottled Water Ban Takes Effect
   
• [WAMC] UVM Celebrates Upcoming Bottled Water
   
• December 9, 2012: [Burlington Free Press]  UVM students build monument marking end to bottled-water sales-  Article and Video 
   
• December 12, 2012: [Boston Globe]  Editorial Kicking the Bottled­water Habit.
   

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