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View Poll Results: Should Hamilton ban small disposable water bottles?
Yes! 15 65.22%
No! 4 17.39%
Charge a (significant) levy on them. 4 17.39%
Voters: 23. You may not vote on this poll

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  #21  
Old Posted Aug 21, 2008, 2:25 PM
DC83 DC83 is offline
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Originally Posted by SteelTown View Post
I'm not a snob or anything but I can't drink out of public fountains, I'm a germaphobe.
Ah good point. And you're def not the only one.

Alternative: fill your own bottle at this fountain w/o touching the top to the mouthpeice.

I guess Shorty Greens are out of the question for you, eh?
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  #22  
Old Posted Aug 21, 2008, 2:26 PM
FairHamilton FairHamilton is offline
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Originally Posted by SteelTown View Post
I'm not a snob or anything but I can't drink out of public fountains, I'm a germaphobe.
Laken, World's finest bottle: http://www.laken.es/

Fill it at home.
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  #23  
Old Posted Aug 21, 2008, 2:30 PM
FairHamilton FairHamilton is offline
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Ironies, of ironies. They are installing vending machines at my office today and a good portion of the beverage one is bottled water.

With the vending machines sitting 8 steps from the free water filtration station we'll see how many bottled waters are sold. I'm willing to bet some people buy the bottled water.........
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  #24  
Old Posted Aug 21, 2008, 2:33 PM
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I think "single use water bottles" is the correct term.
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  #25  
Old Posted Aug 21, 2008, 3:18 PM
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About seven or eight years ago I was working at Wal-Mart during high school, and they had "sport packs" of water and some bottles... me and the other kids working there laughed and laughed at the idea that they'd try to bottle water and sell it to us.

A few years later and no one blinks an eye. When I went to university, on moving-in day I saw one guy bringing about 30 cases of bottled water up to his dorm room.. unbelievable.

Norms can change fast... but the pendulum can swing in the other direction too.

I'm all for the proposed ban, but I know how lazy consumers are.. (pretty much all of us!) Unless there's readily available permanent water bottles, it probably will turn into more pop/other beverages consumed first before it gets better.

There was a comment on a blog talking about providing new vending machines with Hamilton-branded reusable water bottles -- its not such a bad idea! For $8-$20 at local shops the stainless bottles are pretty cheap anyways, and to spin that into bottles that show a positive environmental attitude by the city... that could be something. Even a promotion of the new ban by giving out water bottles like that to city employees could increase visibility and brand it as a positive Hamilton initiative
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  #26  
Old Posted Aug 21, 2008, 4:23 PM
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I'll buy whatever I want to, thanks.
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  #27  
Old Posted Aug 21, 2008, 4:38 PM
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I'll buy whatever I want to, thanks.
As is your right as a member of our society, but soon you just won't be able to buy it on city property.
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  #28  
Old Posted Aug 21, 2008, 5:05 PM
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Originally Posted by emge View Post
There was a comment on a blog talking about providing new vending machines with Hamilton-branded reusable water bottles -- its not such a bad idea! For $8-$20 at local shops the stainless bottles are pretty cheap anyways, and to spin that into bottles that show a positive environmental attitude by the city... that could be something. Even a promotion of the new ban by giving out water bottles like that to city employees could increase visibility and brand it as a positive Hamilton initiative
Fantastic idea!!! You should email that to Council & Mayor Fred. Would be a great innitiative to start at the begininng of next summer: Send out some reps thru Gore Park, Mac, etc giving away these metal bottles with the 'H'-is-for-Hamilton logo with instructions inside as to where one can buy these bottles and how much they are.

Fantastic!
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  #29  
Old Posted Aug 21, 2008, 5:06 PM
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This argument goes beyond the environmental one.

It boils down ('scuse the pun) to a human rights issue. When did water become a commodity? Access to clean drinkable water should be a basic human right.

As for bottled water proponents? Spell EVIAN backwards.
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  #30  
Old Posted Aug 21, 2008, 6:33 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SteelTown View Post
I'm not a snob or anything but I can't drink out of public fountains, I'm a germaphobe.
All you need is to remind yourself that teenagers exist in the world and it's summer, and you'll never drink out of a public fountain again.
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  #31  
Old Posted Aug 21, 2008, 6:43 PM
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Last time I had a bottle of water out in Vancouver and was riding an elevator somebody made a snotty comment.

North American society is becoming disgustingly self-ingratiating. Bottled water is just a target now because it's something people can trivially avoid so they can feel good about themselves. Bitching about smoking and bottled water is for Canadians what bitching about same sex marriage is for southern fundamentalists.
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  #32  
Old Posted Aug 21, 2008, 7:02 PM
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Bottled water is wrong on many levels. Its bringing corporations like Coke and Pepsi that much closer to privatizing our water supply (they've already done it in 3rd world countries). A litre of bottled water costs more than a litre of gas and its no healthier for you than the water coming out of your tap.
I personally don't want to wake up one morning and find out that an American corporation has the rights to all the water in one of our Great Lakes. We are getting closer and closer to this being a reality. Bottled water is helping it along.
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  #33  
Old Posted Aug 21, 2008, 7:12 PM
hammergirl hammergirl is offline
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I can't remember the last time I bought a bottle of water. I'm cheap.

I fill up my stainless Kleen Kanteen and my BPA-Free Camelbak water bottles daily.
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  #34  
Old Posted Aug 21, 2008, 7:17 PM
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By my calculations I'm saving over $500 a year by using clean, safe tap water.
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  #35  
Old Posted Aug 21, 2008, 8:08 PM
markbarbera markbarbera is offline
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IMO this whole debate is a little on the silly side. Banning bottled water for sale at public places limits the consumer from making a relatively healthy choice at the vending machine. You are forcing the consumer to make a less healthy beverage choice. How can you reconcile the effort to remove junk food from vending machines while simultaneously limiting beverage choices to unhealthy sodas or fruit-flavoured beverages? And the alternate choice will still contribute to the recycling dilemna.

If you are intersted in improving the recycling rate, then drop a recycling bin next to the vending machine. The more tonnage of recyclable bottles that end up in the bins, recycling facilities for these bottles will become more available and more cost effective. A plastic bottle recycler in southern Ontario recently stopped accepting them because not enough were being diverted to it to make it a cost-efficient endeavor. Modifying human behaviour to recycle is a long and difficult process. Our efforts should be geared to increasing recycling awareness.

Personally, I see the suggestion to ban the water bottle as a quick-and-easy feel-good item that will do little to impact the overall use of water bottles. Education really is the answer. I do think the idea of a deposit/refund policy would be a more effective approach to undertake. But again, such a policy requires initiative at the provincial level, not a piecemeal municipal approach.
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  #36  
Old Posted Aug 21, 2008, 8:10 PM
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Originally Posted by FairHamilton View Post
Ironies, of ironies. They are installing vending machines at my office today and a good portion of the beverage one is bottled water.

With the vending machines sitting 8 steps from the free water filtration station we'll see how many bottled waters are sold. I'm willing to bet some people buy the bottled water.........
Less than 5 hours from vending machine stocking for the first bottled water to be purchased. And the person who bought it commented what a schlep he was for "buying water"...........
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  #37  
Old Posted Aug 21, 2008, 8:13 PM
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Originally Posted by markbarbera View Post
If you are intersted in improving the recycling rate, then drop a recycling bin next to the vending machine.
But the one big plus of bottled water is portability. A recycling bin next to the vending machine would be almost entirely empty.

Look at Tim Horton's they have garbage cans at their stores, but the countryside is littered with Tim Horton cups. But, I digress.
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  #38  
Old Posted Aug 21, 2008, 8:15 PM
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Originally Posted by adam View Post
Bottled water is wrong on many levels. Its bringing corporations like Coke and Pepsi that much closer to privatizing our water supply (they've already done it in 3rd world countries). A litre of bottled water costs more than a litre of gas and its no healthier for you than the water coming out of your tap.
I personally don't want to wake up one morning and find out that an American corporation has the rights to all the water in one of our Great Lakes. We are getting closer and closer to this being a reality. Bottled water is helping it along.
Agreed!! Americans already run the Hamilton sewage, so privatizing water treatment plants isn't that big a stretch.
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  #39  
Old Posted Aug 21, 2008, 8:17 PM
markbarbera markbarbera is offline
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Maybe we should ban coffee cups too...

Modern streetside waste bins have spots for recyclables already. Lets make them more prominent on the streetscape, particularly along high streets.
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  #40  
Old Posted Aug 21, 2008, 8:44 PM
FairHamilton FairHamilton is offline
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Originally Posted by markbarbera View Post
Maybe we should ban coffee cups too...

Modern streetside waste bins have spots for recyclables already. Lets make them more prominent on the streetscape, particularly along high streets.
No, but maybe Tim Horton's should pay for the clean-up of garbage created by their customers. The brass at Timmie's know the deal because a few months ago they were running radio ads about putting cups in the garbage. A pre-emptive move to the problem? Perhaps........

Another option is that each cup has a $0.10 cent deposit which is refundable when you bring back the cup in any form factor.

Put bins on the street, make them prominent, but that might not work because some people just don't care unless there's a financial impact to them, hence the deposit solution. And some won't even care then, but at least then they are paying for their non-caring attitude............
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