Metro Vancouver – Tap Water Pledge

Nature’s Health Drink … Always On Tap

Metro Vancouver invites the region’s residents to make a “tap water pledge” to drink tap water in refillable bottles instead of buying single-use plastic water bottles. Our goal: Increase the use of tap water for drinking purposes by reducing sales of bottled water by 20 per cent by 2010.

The campaign was actually launched last Fall. But, it’s still important as we move away from plastic to reduce our environmental impact.

Why Metro Vancouver has a Tap Water Campaign:

• Metro Vancouver is committed to reducing bottled water use by 20% by 2010 to reduce the environmental impact of bottled water.
• Millions of single-use plastic water bottles (one litre or smaller) ended up in our region’s landfills in 2007.
• To provide a tangible way for residents to support a sustainable practice – using refillable water containers instead of single-use plastic water bottles.
• Metro Vancouver has high quality drinking water.
• The total amount of energy embedded in our use of bottled water can be as high as the equivalent of filling a plastic bottle one quarter full with oil.
• It takes more water to produce that bottle than the bottle holds.
• It takes 3 liters of water to produce 1 liter of bottled water.
• The production and transportation of bottled water contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.
• Even if the bottle is recycled, more energy is needed to reuse the plastic

Zero Waste Challenge:

• With millions of single-use plastic water bottles ending up in landfills every year, getting more people to drink tap water also supports Metro Vancouver’s Zero Waste Challenge.
• Launched in 2006, the Zero Waste Challenge has a goal to divert 70 per cent of our solid waste from landfills by 2015.
• Almost half of the region’s waste is now buried in landfills or incinerated in the region’s waste-to-energy facility in Burnaby.
• Fifty-two per cent of our solid waste is recycled or diverted. Last year, an estimated three million plastic water bottles ended up in the garbage. Those bottles could have been returned to recycling depots.

Take the pledge to support sustainability in the Metro Vancouver region by choosing tap water over single-use plastic bottled water whenever possible.

To receive more information about Metro Vancouver’s sustainability initiatives, go to: http://www.metrovancouver.org/region/tapwater/Pages/TapWaterPledge.aspx

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