Student Action

Banning the Bottle UW lags in initatives to reduce water bottle usage

Posted: June 15, 2009

Imprint Online. By Julia Hawthornthwaite -

Canadian bottled water companies beware.

We can start calling 2009 year of the bottled water ban, and it is apparent that bottled water companies like Nestle Waters Canada are starting to notice.

This past week the Dawson Creek British Columbia city council received a letter from a spokeswoman of Nestle, Gail Cosman, expressing her concern with the city’s proposed program of reducing bottled water use within the corporation, and the effect it could have on Nestle’s employees, customers, and partners.

Of course, when the city council made the choice to create “bottled water-free zones”, they were not thinking about the agenda of the bottled water companies. On their minds were the issues of reducing waste and promoting a switch to local water — water which is safe, clean, and free.

In March of this year, the University of Winnipeg, Manitoba became the first university in Canada to impose a ban of bottled water on their campus. The decision came after a vote from the student body, where 74.8 per cent said they would support the elimination of plastic water bottles.

The ban is set to be phased out over the next couple of months, and in the meantime, encouragement for students to bring reusable bottles will begin.

The City of Kitchener announced on April 22 that it too has decided to ditch the bottle, and have only tap water present in city owned buildings.

This evidently came as a result of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities encouragement in March to Canadian cities and towns to phase out the sale and purchase of bottled water on municipal property.

Kitchener joins Waterloo, London, Guelph, Toronto, and Ottawa as the Ontario cities to make the move to support city-owned water.

Also in the mix with the University of Winnipeg are 21 Canadian universities and colleges.
But the University of Waterloo, even with its renowned faculty of environment, is not part of the 21. To date, no discussions surrounding such a ban have taken place on our campus.

Yet, the office of Deep Saini, Dean of the faculty of environment, “has been quite active in eliminating bottled water at [their] meetings and events.”

“But in regards to the university as a whole, I assume that this idea would be viewed quite positively,” said Saini.

Raising the profile of this issue on campus will be necessary if a change is to be expected concerning the University’s sale of bottled water products.

While it may be viewed positively in some circles, the student body and especially the Federation of Students would have to act soon if the University of Waterloo has any desire to join the list of schools and municipalities making a strong statement this year: Bottled Water — Not for Sale.