• news
• Beaconsfield

Beaconsfield looks to cap water bottles

Citizens being asked to pledge to stop buying single-use plastic bottles

Karen Seidman
The Gazette
Thursday, June 19, 2008

Having identified plastic water bottles as one of the fastest-growing sources of municipal waste, Beaconsfield has launched a campaign to reduce the consumption of single-use plastic water bottles.
All residents are being asked to take a Tap Water Pledge, which means giving up buying single-use plastic water bottles for a year. They will be given a reusable bottle in return.
“Water bottles are really a triumph of marketing over common sense,” said Beaconsfield Mayor Bob Benedetti. “Bottled water is often just tap water from somewhere else that’s a lot more expensive.”
Kate Coulter, a city councillor and member of the Beaconsfield Environmental Advisory Committee, said that 88 per cent of plastic water bottles are not recycled and a bottle can take from 500 to 1,000 years to break down in a landfill.
“They are durable, reusable and practical,” she said. “It is these very characteristics which make them attractive to consumers (and also) make them hazardous to our environment and to our health.”
Last December, the city banned the use of plastic water bottles from city functions, but Benedetti said that had a small impact. It was decided the next step was to get citizens to do the same.
Although he’s seen a similar program in San Francisco, Benedetti said Beaconsfield is the first in Montreal to launch such a campaign.
During the city’s Heritage Days, from June 24 to July 1, BEAC will ask families to take the Tap Water Pledge. Rubbermaid has donated 1,000 reusable bottles, which the city will distribute to those who take the pledge.

Benedetti said those taking the pledge will set an example for reducing the load on landfills and protecting the planet.
Of course, no water bottles will be sold during the Heritage Days. Instead, portable fountains will be set up and plastic cups will be provided.
There are 20,000 residents in Beaconsfield. Benedetti is anxious to see how many will go along with the pledge.
“A pledge is a very powerful thing,” he said, adding that the success of the program will be at least partly measured by how many agree to take the pledge.
“But it’s more of a question of awareness rather than something that can be measured,” he said of the success of the program.
And no, there won’t be any water-bottle police patrol. Benedetti is counting on residents to keep their promise without coercion.
Local tap water has to meet standards for 160 contaminants, while bottled water has standards for less than six, Coulter said.
As well, she said, one litre of tap water in Canada costs, on average, less than one-10th of a cent, making a litre of bottled water selling for $2.50 almost 3,000 times more expensive. Sales of bottled water are estimated to be somewhere around $43 billion a year,  she added.
Coulter urged all residents to take the pledge.
“It is a healthy pledge, a practical pledge, an economical pledge and an environmental pledge,” she said.