Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
The company has partnered with major players like Danone, Nestle and Pepsi as they prepare to launch 100 per cent plant-based plastic products that are fully recyclable and 100 per cent carbon neutral. "There is a significant effort that is happening,” says Lambton College’s Vice President of Research and Innovation Mehdi Sheikhzadeh. “Across the region, across Canada, around building a clean-tech sector, but in this specific case this is a bio-clean tech sector."
Quebec environment groups say they are going to court to lift the veil on the millions of litres of water collected by Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Naya, Eska and others every year. The Canadian Press has learned that the case will be heard on March 1. Revealing this confidential information could reopen the debate on water royalties received by the province, which opposition parties have long considered too low.
Canadians drink approximately 2.5 billion litres of bottled water a year, so that is a heck of a lot of plastic bottles. While Canadians, and especially here in B.C., are pretty good at recycling theses bottles there is still a huge impact on the environment. For starters, if you factor in making the plastic bottles the water comes in, it takes manufacturers up to three litres of water to product one litre of bottled water. Then you have the energy it takes to produce the bottles from the petroleum raw materials, clean them, label them, fill them, and package them. They then have to be transported to the stores, using more energy. Then they are picked up and transported to your home, and finally disposed of.
The infinite triangular loop of arrows that we know as the recycling symbol adorns millions of plastic pop and water bottles we carefully sort in the blue bin. It comforts us with the idea that each one will be recycled over and over again forever. But unfortunately, most of the time, it's a lie. Many bottles aren't recycled at all, and those that do get recycled usually aren't turned into other bottles or recycled again after that.
A group of water experts, students and former councillors is urging the City of Ottawa to ban bottled water in all its arenas and facilities. The Ottawa Water Study Action Group(OWSAG)gathered at City Hall on Monday to both celebrate the quality of local drinking water and ask the city to get out of the plastic water bottle business. "Ottawa tap water is terrific, it is much better than bottle water," said former city councillor Diane Holmes at the meeting.
