www.theobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1151458 -
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Published on: 8/11/2008
Last Visited: 8/11/2008
They fear this is the tip of the iceberg," said Pat Donnelly, the city's urban watershed manager.
Two forces are driving the city's proposal, he said:
* To promote city tap water as safe and a bargain compared to the bottled variety.
* To protect the environment by minimizing the use of bottled water that must be trucked to London and too often ends up in the landfill.
"Certainly, tap water has a much smaller environmental footprint," Donnelly said.
About 40 million single-use beverage bottles are sold in London each year, but only 20 million are recycled city officials say.
The production of bottled water creates up to 150 times as much greenhouse gas as tap water, officials add.
Plans to phase out bottled water sales won't leave Londoners high and dry, Donnelly said -- sales will only be eliminated once there's a supply of tap water at city sites.
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"We're interested in changing behaviour," Donnelly said.