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August 01, 2021 - 9:00 AM
A call for action against the production of single-use plastic bottles is rolling out across the province in a move to preserve water sources and reduce litter.
The campaign and petition address two important public demands, one for banning bottling and one for moving away from single-use plastics.
The campaign is aiming to push the provincial government to ban the bottling and exporting of local water sources by saying no to new bottling permits in B.C. municipalities.
Deborah Curran is the Executive Director of the Environmental Law Center (ELC) at the University of Victoria.
"We are seeing a growing pattern of municipalities in B.C. who want to ban the bottling and exporting of water," she said. "Water bottling in small bottles goes against provincial policy committed to addressing single use plastics and thus plastic litter in B.C. The province is still approving new permits for water bottling, which is a non-essential use while we are living with drought and wildfire activity."
Curran says the province has control over water licensing and only it can enforce a ban on new bottling permits. The Environmental Law Center has taken action by sending a submission to the province.
CodeBlueBC is a joint campaign led by the Canadian Freshwater Alliance and Watershed Watch Salmon Society that is currently supporting the submission made by UVIC's ELC on behalf of their client, the Golden and District Water Protection Committee.
"We need a B.C. wide moratorium on ground water extraction for water bottling and export," Curran said.
Businesses in Canada produced 3.454 billion single-use plastic water bottles last year.
You can learn more and sign the petition here.
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