No Bottled Water in London, Ontario
by Bonnie Alter, London on 08.21.08
David Suzuki says "I think bottled water is toast." And London, Ontario City Council agrees. The government of this city of 450,000 has voted to stop selling bottled water in all municipal buildings. The vote was 15 to 3, a healthy majority. It was won despite the opposition of the bottled-water industry which came up with two alternate proposals in an attempt to stave off the decision. The ban will extend to city hall, city-owned buildings, hockey arenas and community centres. Now the city will ensure that fountains are installed where ever the water is prohibited.
The drinking water in the area is very safe and healthy. The move was also prompted by the fact that 20 million plastic bottles were ending up on the local landfill each year and clogging it up. The City realized that they were picking up greater and greater volumes of recycling, and it was taking them longer to do it. The cause was the increase in plastic water bottles. They were concerned by the amount of energy it takes to transport the bottles, as well as the waste produced by them. London sets a good precedent; the local school board is now considering doing the same. Other cities such as Windsor, Vancouver, Kitchener and Toronto are too. As Suzuki says: "I hope it leads to the position that SUVs are acquiring in society, where you look at anyone who hauls out a bottle of water and say, 'What the hell's wrong with you? " :: Globe & Mail
More on Bottled Water
:: A World of Reasons to Ditch Bottled Water
:: Tap or Bottled Water
:: City of Seattle Gives Bottles the Boot
London is definitely moving in the right direction!
It would be great to see a city embrace not only banning unnecesary individual bottling, but also to provide a practical and convenient means of drinking water while 'out'. Many people don't care to bring their own container, or if they do there isn't an easy means of filling it up. Fountains don't seem to be acceptable anymore in terms of controlling the spread of infection or having the pipes freeze in winter months (outside).
I'm concerned that people will just be consuming bottled soft drinks and juices in lieu of water. Old habits die hard unless there's an alternative. I'm just wondering if there's a solution out there?
I completely agree Jill. I think a lot of people drink bottled water out of convenience. Definitely something hard to compete with but important. That's why I think it's great that London has taken this initiative.
I work in Toronto for a company that use filtered tap water and not bottled. I hope Toronto adopes the same initiative soon. It will hopefully encourage other companies to follow suit.
While I'm all for saying no to bottled water to begin with, I don't understand why places don't just starting a deposit on the bottles like they do for things like pop and beer. Here in Michigan it's a ten cent deposit for any carbonated beverage, and no deposit for everything else -- juice, water, liquors, wines, etc. People would actually return the bottles if they were getting something out of it. Even if they threw them away, the homeless and/or frugal and opportunistic would find the bottles and do it.
Wow, I am for protecting mother earth, but any government should take a more thought out solution. Rather then to limit choice and create unenforceable laws. Come on do you really think people will forgo the convince of bottles water, They will just buy it out of town and bring it in. Do you really think police want to waste time enforcing the nan? There should be something more like a recycling program paid for by tax or bottle deposit.
The City of London has actually only decided to ban the sale of bottled water at city owned facalities such as areanas golf courses parks etc:
The ban will be phased in at each facility as alternate drinking water equipment is installed.
You can still purchase bottled water at stores within the city.
But this is a start !
London is trying to become a green community, our
new bylaw that bans the use of pestecided comes into effect this fall !
Please check out our cities video located at the following website.
http://www.ambassadorlondon.ca/