La Presse
News, Friday, February 9, 2007, p. A7
Non-reusable water bottles
Charest looking to ban them
By François Cardinal

Jean Charest’s government is about to enact legislation prohibiting the sale of non-reusable water bottles. Acting on its opposition to these new 15-liter bottles that must be disposed of after use, the province will refer the problem to Cabinet in a few days.

According to information obtained by La Presse, Environment Minister Claude Béchard wants prompt action in this matter, in order to prevent, in this province, a similar situation to that of Ontario, where these containers have come to enjoy growing popularity over the past year.

Béchard will, "within the next one to three weeks", table a draft regulation "prohibiting the distribution of large non-reusable containers". The term "large containers" refers to any bottles with a capacity of more than 8 liters.
When reached yesterday, Pascal d'Astous, the Minister’s spokesperson, confirmed the news but would not provide any specific details. "A draft regulation will be presented to Cabinet in the near future," was all he would say.

This move follows water bottler Amaro’s introduction to the market of a new container that Minister Béchard believes is not environmentally friendly. Unlike the traditional 11- and 18-liter sizes, which can be reused a maximum of 70 times, the new bottles are thrown away or placed in the recycling bin after a single use.

This also explains why Minister Béchard wrote a letter to Costco, in May 2006, asking them to stop selling this new type of water bottle. The response was an unequivocal "no". In his letter, he points out that "we see this product as a step backward in our attempts to protect the environment and our natural resources".

Sources indicate that since that time, the tone of the exchanges between the Minister, Amaro and Costco has changed. Over the past few months, both the bottler and the retailer have apparently agreed to align their stance with that of the Charest government.

"Amaro is in favour of a regulation prohibiting the sale of 15-liter single-use containers,” the company’s spokesperson, Pierre Gince, said yesterday. “Our only reason for selling water in single-use bottles was to meet demand among our Quebec clients, so they wouldn’t cross over into Ontario to stock up."

The new bottle size enjoyed immediate popularity in this neighbouring province. Observers believe the reason is that it met a consumer need. Customers would often turn up their noses at refillable bottles, which scratched easily. They also balked at paying a $10 deposit – a requirement intended to encourage clients to bring back their bottles.

Retail giant Costco would not comment on this news yesterday. Minister Béchard’s office, however, was pleased with the company’s decision to discontinue selling these bottles once the stock runs out. "We are happy to see Costco comply with our order,” stated Mr. d'Astous. “The company chose to follow in the footsteps of used tire and motor oil manufacturers, and to be a good corporate citizen."

Since the beginning, the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors has supported the Minister’s actions. The organization, which represents major chains such as Metro, Loblaws and Sobeys, had decided not to sell these non-reusable containers.

Parti québécois Environment critic Stephan Tremblay was the first, in November 2005, to point out the danger that Amaro’s change in policy posed for the environment. Nutrinor, one of its competitors, confirmed the existence of the problem at the time, pointing out that adopting this process would require them to make 628 additional truck trips to transport the soft plastic containers.

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The Conference Board of Canada has released its report entitled Mission Possible: Successful Canadian Cities

I was surprised to see the term "industrial ecology" mentioned repeatedly in the Board's recommendations. It is a term that I haven't heard in a while. In the intervening period since I heard it last the concept of "industrial ecology" has been somewhat popularized by such works as William McDonough & Michael Braungart's Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.

While the concept of industrial systems mimicking natural ecological systems - where one industrial sector utilizes the waste of another sector as feedstock for what the Board calls "productive processes" - is a conceptually simple one, current industrial systems generally do not operate in that way. They generally produce things that are very difficult to "remetabolize" because reuse and recycling was never part of the design process of those things.

Anyway here are the CB's recommendations - it's all pretty high level stuff but intertesting nonetheless.

Recommendations for Environmentally Sound Growth

14) All levels of government work with research institutions to undertake extensive research on ways of dealing with wastes, including ways to convert wastes into inputs for productive processes.
15) Municipal governments and NGOs work with industry to facilitate industry information sharing on eco-industrial networks, clusters and parks.
16) All levels of government and NGOs raise awareness of the economic benefits of industrial ecology to encourage greater industry and municipal participation.
17) Federal and provincial governments review and change regulations to support industrial ecology by permitting the development and use of by-products created from wastes.
18) All levels of government use fiscal tools, such as charging higher wastewater disposal fees and solid waste tipping fees, to support environmentally sound practices.
19) Municipal governments either provide the appropriate infrastructure and design for industrial parks or retrofit them to facilitate the co-sharing of areas and the exchanges and transformation of wastes into by-products.
20) Businesses consider changes in management and leasing policies to accommodate co-use of facilities.

Thefull report can be downloaded by going here: Conference Board of Canada

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