Drinking bottled water may be convenient - but many say the environment pays the price. The University of Hong Kong is the latest to say 'no' to bottled water banning it from campus. CGTN's Li Jiejun has more.

When getting thirsty, just refill reusable bottles with tap water, instead of buying bottled water. This has become a lifestyle of students in the University of Hong Kong. Since July 1st last year, the sale and distribution of all disposable plastic water bottles of one litre or less in volume has been banned on the campus.

JOY LAM HEAD, SUSTAINABILITY OFFICE, HKU "The campaign, we called it 'Ditch Disposable'. The first thing we have ban is the water bottle—plastic water bottle; and in a record, we have been stop selling bottled water in retail outlets, in canteens, in kitchen operations, as well as vending machines. From the statistics we have, from the vending machines alone, we are able to save 200,000 bottles per month. That's a great achievement."

Following the University of Hong Kong's initiative, the Hong Kong SAR government also decided to ban the sale of bottled water from vending machines on government premises since this February. More water fountains are expected to be installed in the city.

LI JIEJUN HONG KONG "Environmentalists are trying to encourage people to use their own reusable bottles. For that, on this mobile app called "water for free", you can see a map showing the locations of filtered water dispensers across Hong Kong."

The carbon footprint of tap water is about 600 times lower than that of bottled water. Imagine a water bottle filled 25 percent with oil ---that's how much oil was needed to produce such a bottle. And 8 percent of the world's oil production goes to manufacturing plastics.

LI JIEJUN HONG KONG "Six million disposable plastic bottles are sold every day in Hong Kong. But with a recycling rate of less than 8 percent, that means more than five million bottles go to landfills."

Plastics buried in landfills can leach harmful chemicals and contaminate groundwater. And they take thousands of years to decompose. And plastic is also the largest source of ocean litter. Some people want to ban bottled water in large parts of Hong Kong, or even throughout the entire region. But it's not easy.

KEUNG SIU LUN PROJECT MANAGER, ENVIRONMENTAL ASSOCIATION "First is the facility, the hygienic water dispenser all over the city. And the cooperation from different stakeholders is very important. Stakeholders means the beverage producers, and also some NGOs. They are aware to ban the bottled water. So I think the environmental education is very important to adopt this policy."

Ditching bottled water helps the earth, and saves money. Everybody should try and avoid drinking bottled water or using plastic bottles unless absolutely necessary. LJJ, CGTN, HK.