Unbottle It!

Last week, I decided to go out on one of the coldest nights of the year to hear Canadian author and activist, Maude Barlow, speak about public water in Ontario. Barlow and CUPE president, Sid Ryan, are on a 15-city tour of Ontario. According to Barlow, "The main goal is to protect Ontario's water, to keep it clean, to put money into infrastructure repairs, and to really promote safe, accessible, clean water in our province."

I was very impressed by Barlow's ability to articulate all the issues that needed to be addressed. It is not surprising to learn that she has been named Senior Advisor on Water Issues by the President of the United Nations.

So what did I learn?

• The bottled water industry is a highly polluting one. Millions of barrels of oil are guzzled in the manufacture, transportation, and disposal of these plastic water bottles.
• In Ontario, only about 35% of water bottles are recycled. That means that 650 million bottles end up in landfills, along the side of the road, or bobbing in lakes and rivers where they could take thousands of years to decompose.
• Bottled water is not as well regulated as tap water. Tap water is tested for hundreds of contaminants thousands of times a year. In the city of Toronto, water is tested every 4-5 hours. Bottled water is tested at most once a year; usually once every three years.
• Bottled water is anywhere from 200 to 3000 times more expensive than tap water.