The University of Toronto, Canada’s largest university, recently announced efforts to stop the sale of bottled water on campus.

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.”

[via U of T News]

Water used to be free.

In fact, it still is — at least in nations blessed with plentiful clean tap water like the U.S. — but that doesn’t stop the world from spending over $100 billion on bottled water a year.

This strange industry is exploding overseas as well.

Who got the idea to sell us something we can get for free? And how did it get so popular that now more than half of Americans drink it?

Business Insider recently revealed 15 outrageous facts about the bottled water industry that you may not know about.

For example, this fact was shocking:

The production of water bottles uses 17 million barrels of oil a year, and it takes three times the water to make the bottle as it does to fill it.

For a product that claims to be environmentally responsible, the bottled water industry does more than its fair share of planet trashing. The amount of oil used to make a year’s worth of bottles could fill one million cars for a year, and more water is used in making the bottle than filling it.

Read the full article at BusinessInsider.com »

The California attorney general’s office on Wednesday sued three companies over allegations they misled consumers by marketing plastic water bottles as biodegradable.

The lawsuit – said to be the first government action to enforce the state’s environmental marketing law – accuses ENSO Plastics of Mesa, Ariz., of falsely claiming their bottles would biodegrade in less than five years, leaving behind no harmful materials.

It is illegal in California to label a plastic food or drink container as biodegradable when such materials can take thousands of years to break down, if at all.

“Californians are committed to recycling and protecting the environment, but these efforts are Read the rest of this entry »

Maryland’s state government recently announced plans to move away from bottled water, saving the Old Line State over $200,000 a year for tax payers, in addition to encouraging sustainability at government facilities.

The O’Malley administration has decided to stop buying bottled water for state facilities where tap water is available, saying it’s striking a blow for frugality and the environment at the same time.

The state’s “Green Purchasing Committee,” formed last year to steer the government toward buying more healthful and environmentally friendly goods and services, voted Thursday to phase out the use of bottled water in state offices and other facilities, officials said.

The move was hailed by environmentalists, who said Maryland’s was the sixth state government to “kick the bottle,” as they put it, joining Connecticut, Vermont, New York, Colorado and Illinois.

“During these tough economic times our government should be spending scarce public dollars on projects that provide vital public services and grow the economy at large, not just the coffers for a handful of private corporations,” Kristin Urquiza of Corporate Accountability International, said in a statement announcing Maryland’s action.

The Boston-based group has been campaigning for years to wean people from bottled water, arguing that buying the essential liquid in non-reusable plastic containers is wasteful and undermines public support for maintaining municipal drinking-water systems. In doing so, activists have squared off against corporate water purveyors like Nestle, which sells the clear stuff in a variety of familiar labels, including Perrier and Deer Park. Read the rest of this entry »

Ban the Bottle readers already know that many colleges have made the push to ban the bottle. But did you know many of these campuses have actually increased the availability of free, filtered drinking water on campus? A recent USA Today article pointed out the latest sustainability movement sweeping the country: Hydration Stations. See the article below for more info:

[ Source USA Today]

Filling stations are no longer just for gas. In an eco-friendly push, hundreds of U.S. colleges are installing water fountains known as hydration stations so students can refill water bottles rather than buy new ones.  Some campuses are even banning the sale of bottled water.

The stations are also popping up in airports, parks, office buildings — and even on tours with bands, including the Black Eyed Peas — as efforts proliferate to reduce plastic waste by promoting tap water.

Adding to this push is a network of more than 800 restaurants and cafes nationwide that have agreed to give people with reusable bottles free water refills. New York-based TapIt, a non-profit group launched in 2009, has worked with city governments to sign up eateries in 22 states. Next month, Philadelphia is slated to join, says TapIt’s William Schwartz.

“It’s the right product at the right time,” says Rod Magnuson, which began selling several versions of the water stations last year.

“They’re so much easier than tipping bottles under the old water fountains,” says Mike Gallagher, a sophomore at Immaculata (Pa.) College, which has 20 stations. “You can fill them all the way to the top.”

What will this mean for bottled water? After a two-year dip, consumption rose 3.5% last year when it averaged 28.3 gallons per American, according to the International Bottled Water Association, an industry group.

“It has a following that’s strong,” especially as recycling of plastic bottles gets easier, says the group’s Tom Lauria. He doesn’t expect hydration stations to hurt sales, adding: “There’s probably enough room for both.”

[source USA Today]

The College of St. Benedict used to like bottled water enough to affix its logo to the plastic and hand it out at alumni events. Macalester College did the same.

But bottled water isn’t welcome anymore.

This fall, the Minnesota schools are joining a national movement to ban disposable Dasani and its ilk from campus cafeterias and admissions offices. St. Ben’s recently became the first school in the state — and the ninth in the nation — to ban the sale and purchase of plain bottled water on campus. Macalester will start a similar policy Sept. 1.

No bottled water sold at soccer games or in vending machines. No bottled water given out at staff picnics or on campus tours.

These campus bans are part of a broader eco-unease with the $11-billion U.S. bottled water industry. Dozens of cities, including San Francisco and New York, have banned bottles of water from being bought with city money. Others have considered banning it from being sold within city limits.

Today’s college students believe that the water is costly and wasteful. As Macalester senior Clare Pillsbury put it: “We don’t buy bottled water.”

For the College of St. Benedict, the decision was based as much on Catholic Benedictine values as environmental concerns.

“Most people jump right to the environment,” said Judy Purman, director of sustainability. “More importantly, though, I think Read the rest of this entry »

Australia’s Mater Hospital will get rid of plastic water bottles this month and hopes other private hospitals will follow suit.

Patients at the hospital are usually given at least”two plastic water bottles every day, but will now have to make do with jugs of “good, old-fashioned tap water”, the hospital’s environmental stewardship manager Kylee Carpenter told Australia’s Daily News.

The ban will result in a saving of about 230,000 bottles a year.

She said while the focus was to make the hospital more environmentally friendly, the ban would also “obviously result in huge financial savings”.

Should all hospitals ban bottled water?

She said tap water was about 2000 times cheaper than bottled water, but just as good.

“There are no safety concerns related to serving tap water to patients,” she said.

Bottled water will still be available for sale in the hospital cafeteria.

Ms Carpenter said while “nine out of 10” public hospitals served tap water only because of the huge expense of bottled water, The Mater would become one of “very, very few” private Sydney hospitals to make the move away from bottles.

She said they were in the process of getting jugs and glasses for the hospitals, and hoped plastic water bottles would be off the menu by the end of this month.

[via Mosman Daily]

Readers Digest recently published several interesting articles on the bottled water industry. While nothing they reported was surprising, we are continually intrigued but the ongoing attempts from bottled water manufacturers to manipulate and mislead consumers. Here is a recap of Reader’s Digest “6 Types of Bottled Water You are Drinking”.

1. These bottled waters actually come from the tap…same thing you have access to everyday but don’t have to pay $1.50 for. Between 25 -45% of the bottled water sold in the US originated as tap water.

• Alaska Premium Glacier (you mean they aren’t chipping off chunks of a glacier into my bottle?)
• Aquafina
• Dasani
• Glaceau Smartwater (Does Jennifer Aniston know about this?)
• Nestle Pure Life
• Yosemite

2.  These bottled waters aren’t as where they say they are. Arctic springs in California? Everest in Texas? I think not….

• Arctic Clear — source: Tennessee
• Arctic Falls Bottled — source: New Jersey
• Arctic Springs — source: California
• Glacier Mountain Natural Spring — source: New Jersey
• Glacier Mountain Bottled — source: Ohio
• Everest — source: Texas

3. Water is pretty amazing, but these bottled waters have taken it to another level.

• H2Om: ” While you drink in the delicious spring water, you are living in the ‘now,’ and you are naturally in a grateful state of being.”  They offer 7 “flavors” – Gratitude, Joy, Love, Peace, Prosperity, Will Power and Perfect Health. (Wow – who is grateful that they have to pay $1.87 for Will Power Water?)
• Holy Drinking: “If you are a sinner or evil in nature, this product may cause burning, intense heat, sweating, skin irritations, rashes, itchiness, vomiting, bloodshot and watery eyes, pale skin color, and oral irritations.” (I thought this was a joke until I saw their site. They are serious – Holy Drinking Water).