We at Save Our Water are happy to support a Petition to the Government of Canada to include plastic water bottles on the list of single use plastics that need to be phased out permanently in 2021.
Petition details:
The Liberal Government campaigned on a promise to ban some single use plastics;
By declaring plastic as a toxic substance, they have taken a bold step in the fight against our addiction to plastic;
We applaud these measures; however, they do not go far enough;
The energy needed to make bottled water is up to 2000 times the energy needed for the equivalent volume of tap water;
It takes more water to create the plastic bottle than the water bottle will actually hold. (Gleick, P.H. and Cooley, H.S. “Energy implications of bottled water.” (Environmental Research Letters 4 (2009)) ;
Water bottlers have zero responsibility when it comes to the waste their bottles create;
Every human is ingesting nearly 2000 particles of plastic a week, five grams of plastics, the equivalent of one plastic credit card;
More than half the plastic on Earth has been created since 2002, and it’s on pace to double by 2030 (Planet Plastic, Rolling Stone, March 3,2020);
A landmark study in the journal Science Advances found that 91% of the 6.3 trillion kilograms of plastic waste has never been recycled, not even once;
Unlike aluminum, which can be recycled again and again, plastic degrades in reprocessing;
Recycling has a limited value and we cannot rely on it as a solution; and
In Ontario alone, one billion plastic water bottles are sent to landfill every year (Environmental Defence).
We, the undersigned, Citizens of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to include plastic water bottles on the list of single use plastics that need to be phased out permanently in 2021.
Please consider adding your name to this petition: https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-2958