Students, staff and faculty at the University of Ottawa will no longer be able to buy a bottle of water to quench their thirst.

Starting today, the university has stopped the sale of bottled water on campus.

The university is encouraging members of its community to find other ways to quench their thirst for water, including filling up glasses and re-usable bottles at the nearest fountain or tap on campus.

The University of Ottawa has invested over $100-thousand to revitalize its water fountains, and will spend an additional $75-thousand next year.

The U of O is the first campus in Ontario to ban the sale of bottled-water.

Way to go U of O!

A recent report by USA Today noted filtered tap water makes up an increasing share of bottled water — rising from 32.7% in 2000 to 47.8% in 2009 — as the share of spring-sourced water declines, according to analysis of industry data by the non-profit consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch.

Nearly half of those in PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic bottles now come from municipal tap water! I can’t say I’m particularly surprised by this figure. Remember the whole Aquafina controversy? Of course you do. Pepsi, the conglomerate behind Aquafina, even admitted Aquafina comes from the tap.

“These are the numbers the bottled water industry doesn’t want you to see,” says Wenonah Hauter, the group’s executive director in a statement. She adds: “More and more bottled water is basically the same product the flows from consumer taps, subsidized by taxpayer dollars—then poured into an environmentally destructive package, and sold for thousands of times its actual value.”

The data, which come from the Beverage Marketing Corporation’s annual report on bottled water, attribute the increase in tap-sourced water to Nestle Pure Life’s switch from spring water to tap water in 2005. They also show that U.S. sales of bottled water increased sharply from 2002 to 2007 but have since fallen.

Report: Bottled water increasingly comes from the tap [via USA Today]

Bottled water sales were down in 2009 compared to the previous year. This is a big win for the Ban the Bottle Movement and a message to bottled water companies like Nestle, Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Add it all up and you get bottled water sales that dropped in 2009 for the first time in five years. Yes, folks, bottled water is becoming the new cigarette.

We can trace this change of attitude to the Australian town of Bundanoon, a hamlet of about 2,500 south of Sydney. It seems the citizens there became angry a few years back when, according to published accounts, a beverage company announced plans to build a water extraction plant in town.

Residents faced the prospect of an outsider taking their water, sending it off to the big city for processing and then selling it back to them. The town became so incensed it voted to ban the end product.

About the same time, according to anti-bottle activists, “one of the dumbest moves in advertising history” occurred when high-end brand Fiji started a campaign intended to tout its water which is imported from the tropics.

The advertising copy read: “The label says Fiji because it’s not bottled in Cleveland.”

Well, the people of Cleveland, the victims of many slings and arrows over the years, did not take kindly to the campaign. So Cleveland Public Utilities director Julius Ciaccia had the local water tested against the bottled stuff. Fiji water had 6.31 micrograms of arsenic per liter; the city tap had zero. The company disputed the findings, but change was in the air.

The cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Salt Lake City have asked employees not to use bottled water or banned city spending on it. Chicago added a 5-cent tax to each bottle.

Bottled water sales are drying up [via Pasadena Star-News]

In January, Washington DC added a $.05 tax on plastic bags in order to attempt to reduce plastic waste. The tax ended up having 2 great outcomes – 1) the number of plastic bags used dropped from a monthly average of 22.5 million to an astounding 3 million! 2) The tax generated $150k  in revenue that will be used to clean up a nearby river.

This is great! A small tax that will help change consumer thinking and an astronomical drop in plastic bag waste. Hopefully other locations will see these results and make the change as well…maybe a tax on bottled water??

Read the full story here

Peter Gleick, President of the Pacific Institute and author of Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water, was on GMA today to talk about how the bottled water industry is a sham. It’s a short video but definitely hits on all the good points and it’s great to get that type of coverage and exposure. Check out the video here: GMA Bottled & Sold

The American Water Works Association (AWWA) held a Best of the Best – Tap Water Taste Test yesterday at their annual conference in Chicago.  This is the 5th year that the AWWA has held the competition in an attempt to prove that tap water is better than bottled water. There were a total of 21 municipal water sample finalists.  The 2010 winner was the Stevens Point Water Department in Wisconsin, 2nd place was awarded to New York City with Lincoln, NE and Silverdale, WA tying for 3rd!

A couple interesting facts about the competition:

• Silverdale, WA uses water from a 1,000-foot-deep aquifer that is so pure the water is pumped directly to homes without the utility treating it
• Stevens Point town motto is “City of Wonderful Water”
• The competition had 3 judges from the AWWA Taste and Odor Committee, with the same taste standards applied to the water as wine and beer taste competitions. This is serious stuff!

Read more here

To wean itself off of plastic and boost its “green” reputation, 40 of Ritz-Carlton’s 73 hotels will switch to plant-based, biodegradable material for their water bottles – a move that’s believed to be a first among hotel chains.

The hotels making the switch are in the U.S. and the Caribbean. Chainwide, the company goes through through about 5 million, 16-oz., water bottles per year, according to the Marriott-owned brand.

Ritz-Carlton hotels provide the bottled water to guests at jogging stations, in guestrooms for turn-down service and in pool areas. Valets also leave a bottle of water behind for a guest after retrieving their vehicle for them.

According to Ritz-Carlton’s press release: The new bottles are made 100% from plants, are all natural, can decompose in 30 days in a commercial composting facility, or can be reprocessed and remade 100% into new bottles. Making one new bottle uses 49% less fossil fuels, 45% less energy, and 75% less greenhouse gases than a classic bottle.

Read the full story at USA Today >>

We bash plastic bottles and the bottled water industry quite a bit here on BTB, but let’s not forget that plastic bags are just as wasteful and unneeded. California legislators seem to think so as well.

Last Friday,the California Assembly Appropriations Committee passed AB 1998 and will be voted on this Friday by the full Assembly.

If passed, the law would go into effect Jan. 1, 2012. Gov. Schwarzenegger has shown support for the move.

San Francisco made history when it became the first city to officially ban plastic shopping bags in 2007, making it a pioneer of the outlawing of common to-go plastic products.

Other cities in the Bay Area, including Oakland and Palo Alto, shortly followed suit.

However, if passed, AB 1998 would be the first statewide ban in history. Supporters say the bill would support the state’s efforts in reducing its waste.

“This legislation starts breaking our addiction to single-use plastic packaging, which has gotten completely out of control,” Mark Gold, president of Heal the Bay, told the Los Angeles Times.

[Read the full story on Tonic]