It would be great to promote a campaign in Guelph with the phrase you suggested: “Guelph Spring Water – Straight from Your Tap.”

In my further research on the Web I found a site http://www.insidethebottle.org
which has an organized campaigh against the production and use of bottled water. It has a very interesting Join the Bottle Free Zone campaign which could be implemented (if it was not already) in our city. I would be surprised if the University of Guelph has not already have their free zone marked.
Another interesting reading on this site was the following news from June this year:

The U.S. Conference of Mayors passed a resolution today encouraging mayors to phase out city spending on bottled water and to promote the importance of municipal water. The resolution, authored by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and sponsored by mayors from 17 major cities, aims to redirect taxpayer dollars to other essential city services…
The vote comes on the heels of actions by more than 60 mayors nationwide, such as cancelling bottled water contracts, to address the budgetary, environmental and social impact of such purchases (visit http://www.ThinkOutsideTheBottle.org for a map of city actions and facts on bottled water impacts). The cities of San Jose, Miami and Orlando announced bottled water phase-outs in the days leading up to the vote.

Over the past year, the U.S. Conference of Mayors explored the economic and environmental impact of bottled water. Research conducted by Conference staff has found that bottled water is being sold for as much as 4000 times the cost of tap water delivery even though up to 40 percent of bottled water comes from the same source.

Excellent ideas. I am going to forward your suggestions to the staff at solid waste services to see if some of them might take hold.

One of the other things that has come to mind for me on this issue is our use of words. Councilor Piper suggested that we start promoting the phrase “plastic” water – in reference to the packaging. She said that her kids stopped wanting cheese slices after she started calling it “plastic” cheese.

Last week MY daughter asked about buying cheese strings. When I asked her if she really wanted to buy plastic cheese she changed her mind!

I wonder how many people would stop buying plastic water?

The other idea that occurred to me was the phrase – “Guelph Spring Water – Straight from Your Tap.”

I would venture to suggest that there may be a lot of people who don’t even know that the water they get out of the tap in Guelph is the very same water Nestle’s selling to them at the grocery store.

In regards to the recycling topic, I would suggest a couple of things:

1) The fact is that majority of citizens agree that water bottles are waste of money, unnecessary addition to the waste and even not good for your health. We live in a free society, so banning its sale is not a good idea. Why don’t’ we start a healthy competition in the city instead? We could set a goal of producing the least number of watter bottles per person in our city or even our ward.

2) Instead of trying to manage huge waste, recycling or not, why don’t we go more aggressively into a campaign to significantly reduce the waste altogether? To make that goal more people-friendly (people will do only things where they see tangible benefits) you could start a competition in this regard. For example, a family, or a ward in the city, who produce the least garbage per person could win this challenge. Additional benefit would be that city of Guelph would be famous for its actions to be green.

3) The plastic bags, which cannot be recycled, are probably driving people crazy, but nobody is doing anything about it. If we do not wrap our produce in plastic bags, if we buy less unrecycable packaged products and if we use every time fabric or reusable carry-on bags, we would be able to reduce our total waste (clear bag stream) to 50% minimum. The only thing needed is to have the first step, which is to START doing something in the community now to achieve this goal.

4) And finally, it may be a good idea to dedicate more space for this and other environmental-related topics. Maybe to dedicate a separate space on your page for this topic, spice it up a little and start with challenging activities. I bet you, you page would be cool and much more visited.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to express my opinion.

Good point – maybe free was the wrong word – but certainly hundreds if not thousands times cheaper than bottled water.

Thanks for the encouragement

Mike, maybe it is time that the city take steps to control or ban the sale of bottled water. Even the topic and up roar will have an impact on the amount we use.

One other note in your Blog. You said “the very same water that comes out of our tap! For free!” Last time I looked at my bill water is a long way from being free in Guelph!!!

Keep up the good work
Bill