The Ontario Federation of Agriculture says a fee on bottled
water could be used to fund farmer programs designed to reduce phosphorous
runoff to the Great Lakes.
There is a goal to reduce current phosphorous runoff levels
reaching Lake Erie by 40 per cent.
The OFA
partnered with Environmental Defence and enlisted support from 23 other
environmental and agricultural groups for a letter asking the Ontario
government to protect freshwater by putting a deposit on single-use beverage
containers, such as plastic water bottles.
“Every
year in Ontario, one billion plastic bottles end up in landfills or our
environment,” said Ashley Wallis, Water Program Manager with Environmental
Defence. “We need to turn this plastic tide. The Blue Box program isn’t working
well enough,” she says.
“Deposit
return programs such as the province already applies for wine and beer bottles
are a proven way to increase recycling rates, Wallis says.
Currently,
about 80 per cent of litter in the lakes is plastic. Ontario also has the
lowest collection rate for plastic beverage containers in Canada, at 47 per
cent.
In
comparison, Canadian jurisdictions with deposit return programs collect up to
95 per cent of their bottles.
They
estimate deposit-and-return could generate $100 million a year that could be
used to clean up the Great Lakes.
Weeks ago, Herman Jonker of Waterloo wrote a letter to the editor of the Waterloo Region Record recommending a fee on bottled water.
He said that would work much better than licensing and charging water-taking companies, such as Nestle, which stirred controversy when it outbid a Wellington County municipality for a well site near Elora.
Weeks ago, Herman Jonker of Waterloo wrote a letter to the editor of the Waterloo Region Record recommending a fee on bottled water.
He said that would work much better than licensing and charging water-taking companies, such as Nestle, which stirred controversy when it outbid a Wellington County municipality for a well site near Elora.
