Bottled water ban buffoonery
Thank you, Toronto City Hall, for finally getting bottled water out of vending machines and helping to make my point that doing so is just a silly and meaningless gesture.
In fact, a pro-ban city councilor revealed what is really behind all this when he told the Toronto Star last Friday, “The city has made a statement.”
That’s right – this is all about making a statement, not about changing behaviors or helping the environment.
And this is a growing trend in municipalities across North America.
Here is how the Star described the situation: “In one vending machine, Aquafina water has been replaced by Aquafina Plus, a vitamin-enhanced flavoured water. That is acceptable because the city resolution only affects unflavoured water.”
So there ya go. The ban will not decrease the number of plastic bottles. Worse, the move takes away the choice of filtered water, replacing it with a more processed product. Brilliant!
Omigod…aquafina for aquafina plus. That’s not even close to making a statement…the flavored product rolls out of the same bottling facility as the non-flavored one, onto the same trucks that spew the same CO2-filled exhaust, and into the same vending machines that feed on the consumers’ toonies every day. This is nothing more than a poorly crafted, environmentally unfriendly smoke and mirrors magic trick and when the smoke clears these overzealous councilors will be seen as the hypocrites they are. They would do well to remember the words of Lincoln before drafting another resolution -- “You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.”
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