City considers bottled water ban

paul mcleod/metro halifax

Jill Pettipas of Dartmouth satiates her compulsive need to drink water by carrying around a metal water container. Some cities across Canada are making efforts to get rid of plastic water bottles. Mayor Peter Kelly said he’s eyeing a ban for city hall and some public buildings.

Bottled water has already been dropped by one Canadian city and others are considering similar moves — including HRM.

The Globe and Mail reported city council in London, Ont., recently voted to eliminate sales of bottled water at arenas, community centres and all other city-run facilities.     

Bottled water has become the subject of environment scorn because it is seen as needlessly wasteful and destructive to the planet.

“In the overall pantheon of consumer products, it’s one of the worst when it comes to a big environmental footprint and producing a lot of greenhouse gases,” said Raymond Plourde of the Ecology Action Centre.

Mayor Peter Kelly said he’s been in talks with staff about cutting bottled water out of city hall and other buildings, but says the city doesn’t have much to do with bottled water to begin with.

“We don’t supply water to very many locations,” said Kelly. “We’ve been talking about it the last few weeks about having it done to city hall. Staff is looking into it.”

Kelly said beyond that, the municipality just doesn’t have the authority to stop anyone from selling bottled water. A spokesman for the province said they have no plans to change their approach, but they do encourage people to reduce usage and recycle.

Plourde at the Ecology Action Centre said the important thing is to kill the fad of unnecessarily buying water. He said Canada has perhaps the highest-quality water supplies in the world.

“I’d like to see people be more aware of the huge environmental footprint that that bottle of water represents, and to make a smart choice,” he said.