Initiatives
Bottled water creates large amounts of waste, with plastic bottles among the ten most common rubbish items picked up on Cleanup Australia Day. Australia recycles only 36% of PET plastic drink bottles. Around 373 million plastic water bottles end up as waste each year. At UOW campuses, water drinking fountains and/or bottle refill locations are available to all, across buildings and at numerous outdoor locations.
The Water Management Action Plan has been developed to reduce potable water use, maximise rainwater capture capacity and water reuse and recycling opportunities, comply with NSW water quality standard, and improve awareness and education the UOW campus community about water conservation and water pollution and water quality issues. UOW also implemented measures to track the total volume of water used in the university, a process in place to treat wastewater, minimise water usage and maximise water reuse including sustainable rainwater extraction and storage on campus.
Fact sheets
