HSBC Water Programme to save half a million water bottles a year

A new initiative by the HSBC Water Programme called Catch the Drop will prevent hundreds of thousands of plastic bottles from being disposed of in Malta’s two landfill sites.

The initiative will replace school children’s disposable water bottles with reusable ones, and to date, the campaign has distributed a total of 2,070 high-quality reusable bottles at five schools.

According to the bank, this is expected to save some 382,950 bottles in a year, calculated on the assumption that each student brings a disposable water bottle to school five days a week for 37 scholastic weeks in a year [2070 x 5 x 37 = 382,950].

The bank added that the latest school to receive bottles was Kirkop Secondary St Benedict College where some 800 bottles were distributed. It added that all bottles being donated by HSBC are of the highest quality and BPA free (bisphenol A.)  making them safe for children to reuse.

“As good waste management begins with prevention, the campaign is launching another initiative, which will allow HSBC Malta staff to install a domestic reverse osmosis (RO) plant at their homes, with the bank partially subsidising the cost of each RO plant,” a statement reads.

The bank added that under this initiative, a minimum of 150 staff and their families are expected to stop using plastic bottled water, avoiding the production and disposal of 135,000 bottles per year and bringing the number of saved bottles to 517,950.

The bank will also further complement conservation efforts in a new waste separation initiative, where the bank will be distributing a total of 20,800 bio-degradable recycling bags to various schools.

“The key thing we are trying to achieve is to build awareness amongst students that the resources that we have here in Malta are really precious and we have a responsibility to look after those resources and use them responsibly and to preserve them in a way that will support the future generations,” said HSBC Malta CEO Andrew Beane.