Invent Civil

I think this article at The Record says it all:

Officials from an association of bottled-drink manufacturers — and from Nestle, which runs water-bottling plants in Puslinch — told council there is no environmental justification to ban tightly regulated bottled water. Most bottles are recycled in Ontario, they said.

Well, if NESTLE says it, then it must be true.  Surely there are no other environmental implications besides the bottles themselves…</sarcasm>  Also,

John Challinor of Nestle offered to partner with Cambridge on an outdoor bottle-recycling program to encourage people to aim for blue boxes instead of garbage cans or ditches. City staff are to review Nestle’s offer.

I really can’t understand how this is just sliding under the radar like this.  First they say “there is no environmental justification to ban tightly regulated bottled water.”  So why is there a need to encourage people to use blue boxes?  Don’t they all recycle their bottles anyways?

Just to put the icing on the cake, here’s a great argument from councilor Tucci:

“This is nothing but a ‘me-too, me-too’ jumping on the green band wagon,” said Coun. Ben Tucci, who wondered why, if bottled water is a problem for the environment, Wolf’s motion didn’t include pop in plastic bottles and cans or juice in tetra packs. “If your concern is the environment, your concern is the environment. You can’t have it both ways.”

While bottled pop would be just as harmful to the environment as bottled water (if not moreso), there is no choice but to buy pop from a bottle.  Water comes from a tap throughout Cambridge, so there is no need to buy it from a bottle.  His ignorance does not just insult environmentalists, but also the municipal workers who work hard to keep the city’s water safe and accessible.

Now that I’ve had my say, know that there are two sides to every story.  The other side to this story is found in a different article at The Record:

Interestingly, drinking-water taps aren’t available at all the city’s buildings, which makes any kind of ban on bottled water rather dubious. Instead of worrying about bans, why not try to ensure the public has access to public drinking water in public buildings?

This is a good point, and a point that should be addressed more vocally than the comparison between bottled water and pop.  So if this is the real reason for not banning bottled water, I assume that the city will be installing drinking taps throughout their buildings?  Oh wait, Nestle’s not going to help fund that, now are they?