New Filtermac at VŠE

Students and staff have a third Filtermac water filter system at their disposal. After the machines located at the student dormitories in Jarov and in the Old Building on the campus at nám. W. Churchilla a new Filtermac machine is available on the ground floor of the New Building. The operation was officially launched on November 27 in the presence of Hana Machková, the rector of the University of Economics, Prague.

“I am pleased that we are launching another Filtermac at VŠE. Filtered water has become a student favourite. During breaks, queues are even formed by the Filtermac machine in the Old Building. This new one is in a very busy place, so I believe it will still be permanently used,” said the rector.

“We are pleased that students and employees have become accustomed to Filtermac and that the management of VŠE sees the reasoning behind the limitation of disposable plastic and Filtermac’s role in this,” said Martin Václavík, the founder of Filtermac. “We believe that thanks to this third machine we will all help to eliminate the use of PET bottles and also eliminate the queues created by the machine on the first floor of the Old Building,” he added with a smile.

VŠE has been offering an alternative to bottled water since August 2017, when the first Filtermac machine was installed in Jarov. The second machine has been in operation since October 2018. During this period, students and staff have helped save around 7.5 tons of plastic, around 300 000 PET bottles. E.g. The users of the machine in the Old Building save around 11 000 PET bottles per month, according to Filtermac. The new Filtermac also has the potential to save thousands of PET bottles per month.

The university also started selling glass bottles to help reduce plastic waste. Eco hand-blown water bottles with stainless steel lids can be purchased at the Ekopress store on the ground floor of the Old Building.

How does Filtermac work? Filtermac filter devices use tap water and treats it to the highest quality just before the user fill their bottle with water. Carbon filters remove all odours and tastes from the water and UV light eliminates any bacteria. The result is fresh quality water of excellent taste that does not travel on the road and is not stored unnecessarily. Czech and Moravian universities are also joining the School without PET Bottles project.