Canada’S Largest University Goes Bottled Water-Free
September 13, 2011
TORONTO, ON – As the academic year begins, bottled water will no longer be available at the majority of locations on the University of Toronto’s St. George campus. Over a three-year period, sales of bottled water at U of T Mississauga and U of T Scarborough will also be phased out.
The University of Toronto joins over a dozen other campuses that have pledged to go bottled water-free. The ban comes after a campaign spearheaded by students at the University who have been raising awareness on campus of the environmental and social impact of the commodification of water.
“Bottled water turns a basic human right into a commodity,” says U of T master’s degree student Leanne Rasmussen, who helped initiate the ban as a member of the Public Water Initiative group. “It is critical that people understand the threat of private control on universal access to clean, safe drinking water.”
Clara Ho, VP University Affairs for the University of Toronto Students’ Union, said the ban represents a historic moment for the University community.
“Students are excited to see the commitment of the administration to make clean drinking water more accessible across the University,” says Ho. “From the success of the bottled water-free campaign, we see that students working together can achieve a positive change for environmental justice.”
This fall on the St. George campus, food service outlets and vending machines will stop offering bottled water. Members of the community will now have access to new fountains and water-refill stations. To raise awareness of the bottled water ban, there will be an “OnTap” event on campus on September 15th in the Willcocks Commons, featuring water games, a scavenger hunt and water experts.
‘The move away from bottled water sales illustrates the university’s commitment to sustainability as well as the power of student engagement,” says Anne Macdonald, Director of Ancillary Services at U of T, whose team helped to facilitate the changes. “This ban shows just how important our students are in driving positive change.”
TORONTO, ON – As the academic year begins, bottled water will no longer be available at the majority of locations on the University of Toronto’s St. George campus. Over a three-year period, sales of bottled water at U of T Mississauga and U of T Scarborough will also be phased out.
The University of Toronto joins over a dozen other campuses that have pledged to go bottled water-free. The ban comes after a campaign spearheaded by students at the University who have been raising awareness on campus of the environmental and social impact of the commodification of water.
“Bottled water turns a basic human right into a commodity,” says U of T master’s degree student Leanne Rasmussen, who helped initiate the ban as a member of the Public Water Initiative group. “It is critical that people understand the threat of private control on universal access to clean, safe drinking water.”
Clara Ho, VP University Affairs for the University of Toronto Students’ Union, said the ban represents a historic moment for the University community.
“Students are excited to see the commitment of the administration to make clean drinking water more accessible across the University,” says Ho. “From the success of the bottled water-free campaign, we see that students working together can achieve a positive change for environmental justice.”
This fall on the St. George campus, food service outlets and vending machines will stop offering bottled water. Members of the community will now have access to new fountains and water-refill stations. To raise awareness of the bottled water ban, there will be an “OnTap” event on campus on September 15th in the Willcocks Commons, featuring water games, a scavenger hunt and water experts.
‘The move away from bottled water sales illustrates the university’s commitment to sustainability as well as the power of student engagement,” says Anne Macdonald, Director of Ancillary Services at U of T, whose team helped to facilitate the changes. “This ban shows just how important our students are in driving positive change.”
Canada’s public water systems could be up for sale under CETA
The Council of Canadians and The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) released a report last week raising serious concerns about the threat a trade deal with the European Union poses to Canada’s public water systems.
Public Water For Sale: How Canada will privatize our public water systems is a report to municipal, provincial and territorial governments regarding the Canada European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). It warns that public water in Canada will be lost unless the provinces and territories take immediate steps to remove water from the scope of negotiations.
CETA would open up public municipal water systems across Canada to privatization. Europe is home to private water giants such as Veolia Environment and Suez. At the request of these private, for-profit water corporations, Canada’s provincial and territorial governments are considering including drinking water and wastewater services in their services commitments under CETA. Once systems are privatized, public control and accountability would be lost.
“CETA is a water privatization deal,” says Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians. “Our public water is being negotiated away behind closed doors. We need to act now or we will wake up one morning and our public water systems will be gone.”
CUPE and the Council of Canadians are calling on the provinces and territories to assert their jurisdiction and protect water from being opened up to private corporate interests.
To read the report, go here: http://council-of-canadians.c.topica.com/maaor51ab1X0HaVajBobaeQy7T/
Public Water For Sale: How Canada will privatize our public water systems is a report to municipal, provincial and territorial governments regarding the Canada European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). It warns that public water in Canada will be lost unless the provinces and territories take immediate steps to remove water from the scope of negotiations.
CETA would open up public municipal water systems across Canada to privatization. Europe is home to private water giants such as Veolia Environment and Suez. At the request of these private, for-profit water corporations, Canada’s provincial and territorial governments are considering including drinking water and wastewater services in their services commitments under CETA. Once systems are privatized, public control and accountability would be lost.
“CETA is a water privatization deal,” says Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians. “Our public water is being negotiated away behind closed doors. We need to act now or we will wake up one morning and our public water systems will be gone.”
CUPE and the Council of Canadians are calling on the provinces and territories to assert their jurisdiction and protect water from being opened up to private corporate interests.
To read the report, go here: http://council-of-canadians.c.topica.com/maaor51ab1X0HaVajBobaeQy7T/
What's in YOUR water?
Ever wonder what ELSE is inside the bottle?
The bottled water industry claims their products are packed with purity and good health. Before you swallow that, consider what else is inside the bottle, and which corporations are eagerly tightening the seal on the world's limited water supply.
A few large corporations dominate the bottled water industry. Currently, the big players are Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestle. In the last decade, these corporations have benefited from explosive growth in sales of their various bottled water brands. In the the U.S. alone, consumption of bottled water has increased six-fold from 1997 to 2003, while in Canada people are drinking this beverage more than coffee, tea, apple juice or milk. Bottled water is a near billion USD industry and growing at an alarming rate.
While the demand for clean drinking water is growing, the world's fresh water sources are limited and increasingly threatened with pollution, contamination and overuse. Industry giants like Coca-Cola, Nestle and Pepsi have been aggressively tapping into ground water and municipal water systems to fill their plastic bottles with what is essentially a public resource, to make a private profit.
These corporations are also packing more inside their bottled water products than people may realize. Not only are billions of plastic containers littering communities, but the plastics industry is threatending our air, land and water systems by manufacturing the containers for this superstar growth industry.
The bottled water industry claims their products are packed with purity and good health. Before you swallow that, consider what else is inside the bottle, and which corporations are eagerly tightening the seal on the world's limited water supply.
A few large corporations dominate the bottled water industry. Currently, the big players are Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestle. In the last decade, these corporations have benefited from explosive growth in sales of their various bottled water brands. In the the U.S. alone, consumption of bottled water has increased six-fold from 1997 to 2003, while in Canada people are drinking this beverage more than coffee, tea, apple juice or milk. Bottled water is a near billion USD industry and growing at an alarming rate.
While the demand for clean drinking water is growing, the world's fresh water sources are limited and increasingly threatened with pollution, contamination and overuse. Industry giants like Coca-Cola, Nestle and Pepsi have been aggressively tapping into ground water and municipal water systems to fill their plastic bottles with what is essentially a public resource, to make a private profit.
These corporations are also packing more inside their bottled water products than people may realize. Not only are billions of plastic containers littering communities, but the plastics industry is threatending our air, land and water systems by manufacturing the containers for this superstar growth industry.
Inside the Bottle
INSIDE THE BOTTLE: An expose on the bottled water industry by the Polaris Institute has shown the major corporate players in this industry to be guilty of irresponsible and dangerous corporate practices that manipulate consumers, degrade the environment and threaten the public's right to water. Take a close look at these three troublesome areas inside the bottle:
1. Consumer Manipulation
Price Gauging
Bottled water is 240 - 10,000 times more expensive than tap water - even though more than 25% of bottled water originates from municipal tap water systems.
Transforming Water
Bottled water is a product based on a clever ruse - it is quite simply water transformed into water. As a former executive of Perrier once remarked: "It struck me...that all you had to do is take the water out of the ground and then sell it for more than the price of wine, milk, or for that matter, oil."
Marketing Schemes
Bottled water cartels like to suggest that tap water is inferior, yet NYC's water is tested more than 400,000 times/year and the City of Toronto tests its water quality every 4 hours. Meanwhile, bottled water plants receive government inspections once every 3-6 years!
2. Environmental Degradation
Contaminated Water
Arsenic, mercury and bromides have been found in bottled water.
Recycling Record
Bottled water corporations undermine community recycling efforts by funding opposition to bottle bills and tougher recycling rules. The industry often outspends recycling proponents by as much as 30 to 1.
Eco-Threatening
Plastic bottles release highly dangerous toxic chemicals and contaminants into the air and water when they are manufactured. And these containers are the fastest growing form of municipal solid waste in the U.S. and Canada.
3. Corporate Control
Water Privatization
Public water systems are bottled water's biggest competitors. And the expanding bottled water market erodes people's confidence in their public water systems, paving the way for higher prices and corporate control of our water resources.
Water Takings
Bottled water corporations use their political influence and economic might to take water resources from communities.
School Contracting
Across the U.S. and Canada, there are a growing number of schools, universities and colleges signing exclusive beverage contracts with cola kings Coke and Pepsi. Both corporations are major players in the bottled water market and are pushing these products aggressively in schools in hopes of turning students into life-long consuers.
Please visit INSIDE THE BOTTLE by clicking the link below.
1. Consumer Manipulation
Price Gauging
Bottled water is 240 - 10,000 times more expensive than tap water - even though more than 25% of bottled water originates from municipal tap water systems.
Transforming Water
Bottled water is a product based on a clever ruse - it is quite simply water transformed into water. As a former executive of Perrier once remarked: "It struck me...that all you had to do is take the water out of the ground and then sell it for more than the price of wine, milk, or for that matter, oil."
Marketing Schemes
Bottled water cartels like to suggest that tap water is inferior, yet NYC's water is tested more than 400,000 times/year and the City of Toronto tests its water quality every 4 hours. Meanwhile, bottled water plants receive government inspections once every 3-6 years!
2. Environmental Degradation
Contaminated Water
Arsenic, mercury and bromides have been found in bottled water.
Recycling Record
Bottled water corporations undermine community recycling efforts by funding opposition to bottle bills and tougher recycling rules. The industry often outspends recycling proponents by as much as 30 to 1.
Eco-Threatening
Plastic bottles release highly dangerous toxic chemicals and contaminants into the air and water when they are manufactured. And these containers are the fastest growing form of municipal solid waste in the U.S. and Canada.
3. Corporate Control
Water Privatization
Public water systems are bottled water's biggest competitors. And the expanding bottled water market erodes people's confidence in their public water systems, paving the way for higher prices and corporate control of our water resources.
Water Takings
Bottled water corporations use their political influence and economic might to take water resources from communities.
School Contracting
Across the U.S. and Canada, there are a growing number of schools, universities and colleges signing exclusive beverage contracts with cola kings Coke and Pepsi. Both corporations are major players in the bottled water market and are pushing these products aggressively in schools in hopes of turning students into life-long consuers.
Please visit INSIDE THE BOTTLE by clicking the link below.
Bottled Water Free Day: March 11th
Media Advisory - Thousands of Canadians to Participate in Canada's First Bottled Water Free Day on March 11th
OTTAWA, March 10 /CNW Telbec/ - On Thursday March 11, Canadians from coast to coast will be participating in Canada's first Bottled Water Free Day.
Highlights of Bottled Water Free Day include:
Bottled Water Free Day is organised by the Canadian Federation of Students, Sierra Youth Coalition and Polaris Institute.
For a full list of events and endorsing organisations visit www.bottledwaterfreeday.ca
OTTAWA, March 10 /CNW Telbec/ - On Thursday March 11, Canadians from coast to coast will be participating in Canada's first Bottled Water Free Day.
Highlights of Bottled Water Free Day include:
- Announcements by Ryerson University regarding the sale of bottled water on campus;
- Events on more than 60 college and university campuses;
- Release of the results of an Access to Information request regarding spending by the CBC on bottled water.
Bottled Water Free Day is organised by the Canadian Federation of Students, Sierra Youth Coalition and Polaris Institute.
For a full list of events and endorsing organisations visit www.bottledwaterfreeday.ca