Some island schools are selling almost 2,000 bottles of water a week - making an annual profit of £50,000.

But schools also say they are improving policies to reduce single use plastics and ensure free tap water is available alongside promoting reuseable water bottles.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request was submitted to the Department of Education, Sport and Culture (DESC) regarding the use of plastic bottles at the island’s secondary schools.

In the response, DESC revealed Ballakermeen High School sells 1,307 bottles of flavoured water in a typical week and 608 bottled still/plain water.

St Ninians High School sells 1,996 bottles of flavoured water and 628 of bottled still/plan water.

Castle Rushen High School sells 1350 bottles of water in total during a typical week while Queen Elizabeth II High School (QEII) sells 642 bottles of flavoured water and 451 bottles of still/plan water. Ramsey Grammar School only sells cartons of drink.

The FOI also asked how much profit the schools make from selling plastic bottles of water. St Ninian’s said it makes £48k annually while Ballakermeen gave a similar figure of £48.304. Ramset Grammar says it does not sell plastic bottled water while the other school said they were unable to provide such figures.

The FOI also asked if tap is water available in the canteen with Ballakermeen having two water fountains and Ramsey Grammar School having three plumbed-in water units in the dining hall. All the other secondary schools simply answered yes to the question.

When asked how many drinking fountains are available in each school, both Ballakermeen and St Ninian’s said there are nine with eight at Castle Rushen and one at QEII. Ramsey Grammar has four plumbed-in water stations rather than any water fountains.

All secondary schools say they promote the use of reusable water bottles. Ballakermeen offers a branded reusable water bottle. It also says water is freely available and recommends students bring a refillable drinks bottle into school.

Castle Rushen also promotes the use of reusable water bottles by providing Year 7 students with free bottles featuring the school logo. The other schools also confirmed they promote the use of refillable bottles.

When asked whether there have been improvements in reducing the use of single use plastics since 2018, Ballakermeen said the quantity of bottles of water sold has reduced while Castle Rushen has introduced wooden cutlery, food served in compostable cartons and drinks in paper cups when needed.

QEII says the canteen also no longer uses plastic cutlery or salad boxes while Ramsey Grammar does not use single use plastic. St Ninians High also says no plastic cutlery cups or food packaging is used and there has been reduced vending machine use.

When asked if they have been made aware of their plastic consumption by internal or external peoples, all schools answered no except for QEII who added that an Eco Committee is in place to start to explore this issue further.

In the FOI, DESC added: ‘The department does not have a separate single use plastics policy but is committed as per the DESC Climate Change Plan and Policy 2024-25 to avoid disposable items, in line with the single use plastics regulations 2022.’