Community & Labour Action

Canada: Not good to keep things bottled

- The Guelph Mercury. By Lisa Varano -

My last drink is coming. The drink is not alcoholic, but Guelph sees it as poison anyway.

I'm talking about bottled water.

Dear eco-crusaders in Guelph, you have worn me down.

I give in. I will get a stainless steel container and stop buying plastic water bottles.

Bottled water is politically incorrect in Guelph. There is social pressure to do away with it.

I feel imaginary stares from strangers when I use a plastic water bottle. They may be too polite to say anything, but I know they are thinking it: She's an environmental enemy.

As a reporter, I find myself in different situations with strangers all the time. Sometimes, I am afraid to take out my plastic water bottle because it might offend.

While reporting on speeches or discussions, I have watched in amazement when presenters sipped from plastic water bottles. 'Wow, they're brave to be drinking out of that,' I've thought.

Don't they realize they've just taken out a bomb that Guelph says will explode in environmental destruction?

I used to have a reusable, hard plastic container for water, but it met a careless end a few months ago. Since then I have been using the evil disposable water bottles.

When I decided I would soon get a stainless steel container out of guilt, I told fellow reporter, Magda Konieczna.

She's one of the greenest people I know. Magda brings reusable bags to the grocery store, composts in her backyard, uses a handkerchief, and feels guilt about her "big green footprint."

Magda wrote "I reuse" on a piece of tape and stuck it to my water bottle, so people would know I wasn't tossing every single one immediately after drinking it.

It's true, I was reusing, and that's a favourite principle of the environmental movement. But after a while, the bottle got smashed up and gross inside so I went for a new one.

You're right, environmentalists, that is a waste -- and that is why I'm giving in.

Pollution is caused and water is wasted in the manufacturing of plastic bottles.

Water that is bottled is sold at a ridiculous markup compared to what comes out of the tap.

The process is made all the more terrible by the unconscionable number of people who don't have access to clean drinking water while we sip our spring water.

Now when I see strangers in Guelph with stainless steel containers, I ask where they got them.

Yesterday, I saw a university student drinking out of a glass jar. Oh, Guelph. How like you.

I didn't need to ask her where she got that container.

Lisa Varano is a Mercury reporter and can be reached at lvarano@guelphmercury.com.