Busted Bottles

Yay!  The blight of so many school lunch rooms will soon be eliminated!  Several Canadian district school boards are moving to ban the sale of bottled water from school vending machines and cafeterias.

 
Bottled water is one of those things that really gets my goat.  The popularity of bottled water here is undeniable - Statistics Canada says nearly one-third of all Canadian households are choosing bottled water over tap water and the data indicates those numbers are on the rise.

 

It’s not surprising with water quality tragedies that have occurred in our recent past (2000) in Walkerton, Ontario where seven people died and more than 2,300 were made ill due to water contaminated by e.coli and campylobacter bacteria, some people are not ready to trust the government to ensure a safe water supply.

Why then do we still buy it and drink the stuff?  Convenience is my guess – and my excuse when I end up doing so.

I hope more school boards and institutions take the lead that Waterloo District School Board has (and Toronto and Ottawa-Carleton School Districts are considering) and eliminate this scourge on the sustainability landscape.

 

What do you think?  Are you a dedicated bottled water drinker or a tap-water snob?

But here in Toronto, we boast some of the cleanest water on the planet.  I trust that this municipal water – treated through a rigorous system in one of four treatment plants is as good as it gets, and likely much better than anything that comes out of a bottle that has come from (in some cases) another foreign municipality’s water supply.

Bottled water sale and production is totally unsustainable – besides that, it’s not necessary in most places in North America where hygiene and sanitation standards are consistently high and checked with continuous rigour. This, coupled with the fact that most bottles end up in landfill, results in a complete and utter exercise in futility.

Photo credit: Flickr Chhata, 16th Oct 2007