As part of a campaign to increase people's use of reusable bottles, I'd like to know whether anyone has had experience in using events to change behaviour. Can anyone provide case studies and examples of when an event has not sold bottled water but has instead provided reusable bottles (were they branded?) and free refill stations? I'm aware of the water refill options at the annual Woodford Folk Festival and the recent Caloundra Music Festival which banned bottled water. Has anyone used events as part of a CBSM campaign, encouraging normative behaviour? How have arguments around decreased sales of bottled water been handled? Thanks for any assistance.
Michele Smith
Project Officer - Behaviour Change Campaign
Healthy Waterways
Australia
Providing refillable water bottles at events
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At Parramatta City Council, we will be going bottled-water-free for Australia Day 2014 (that's 26th January, for people from other countries). It's the first time we've done it, and it's our biggest event on the calendar (up to 60,000 people).
We are working with Sydney Water, who will have (free) TAP refill stations. We also have one extra refill station as a supplement. The main limitation is that the Sydney Water stations have to be located where there are taps, and we're in a heritage park where those are limited and we can't just install new ones. So we can't get as many water stations as we'd like. The one extra refill station doesn't gets pre-filled but there was only one available for the day by the time we ordered it!
We'll be giving out a limited number of water bottles, and have been talking through the best placement of those so that people don't just take a free thing and not use it. (My preference would be to sell them for a small amount to deter this but we aren't able to do that, unfortunately, as they were produced by the major sponsor.)
To my knowledge, stallholders have simply been told that they aren't allowed to sell water - I'm not aware of any complaints as yet. I have suggested that the stallholders might sell water bottles themselves, but I'm not sure if that will happen or not. We are putting reminders about bringing water bottles on all the marketing, but we will also have biodegradable disposable cups for people who don't have a bottle because we don't expect everyone to actually DO that.
I can provide an update after the event about how well it actually worked.
You might also like to get in touch with the organisers of the Newtown Festival (also in Sydney). They have been bottled-water-free for a couple of years.
Katherine Lustig
Parramatta City Council
Australia
Great, thanks very much Katherine. Interesting that none of the stallholders have had issues about not being able to sell water. The economic arguments seem to be strongly in support of selling water but it may not be the issue we think it is. I'd love to see a report after you've held your event, perhaps with some figures on how many water bottles you think you may have prevented from being used and how many refillable bottles you gave away. It's also great to see so many places trialling bottled water free events and hopefully that will become the norm in the near future. Thanks again.
Michele Smith
Project Officer - Behaviour Change Campaign
Healthy Waterways
Australia
I know what you mean. I have started a conversation at some of our public venues (where bottled water is sold) about having bubblers for the public, and apparently the water is a major source of revenue for them... so I am still looking for really good ideas to sway them.
Feel free to harrass me after Australia Day for a report on our success (or failure...).
Katherine Lustig
Corporate Sustainability Coordinator
Parramatta City Council
Australia
Hi Michele,
Although not an exact example of your question - we have provided refill stations using the big blue water jugs and a hand pump at some of our summer events with some really positive feedback. People seemed really happy to be able to either refill the bottle they brought or their empty plastic water bottle. They were also happy to leave a donation for their use of the service (we are a non-profit so we get away with this ;-)
Karen Mason-Bennett
Program Coordinator
NEAT
Canada