Take a stand against bottled water
Erin’s council will decide Tuesday night whether to accept Nestlé’s voluntary levy to the town. The company is offering $25,000 annually, no matter how much water is taken, and 50 cents for every 1,000 litres, up to the maximum of 1.1 million litres per day allowed by their current permit.
I am so hoping that council will vote no to Nestlé’s “gift.” I don’t think I have ever felt more strongly or been so sure about any decision being made for our town, and I have lived here 40 years.
I would be so proud of Erin if we could be the little town that stood up to Nestlé and the bottled water industry as a whole.
Besides the fact it is the right thing to do, we would be leaders, giving other communities in Ontario, Canada and around the world the confidence to do the same thing. Jill Green, Erin
Re It’s time we weaned ourselves off bottled water, Editorial, April 10 Companies such as Nestlé get water almost no cost and then sell it for the same price as soft drinks. The proposed increase in water cost to bottled-water companies is $503.71 per million litres, which works out to five one-thousands of a cent per litre. That means they essentially have unfettered access to water for free and they have the nerve to complain about it.
As we approach Earth Day, let’s also not forget the environmental costs of water bottles littering our streets, waterways and homes.
Kudos to the Star and the Wynne government for holding Nestlé and others to account. Harry Oswin, Muskoka, Ont.
The ban-bottled-water campaign may be ignoring my reality: When out and about, bottled water is often the only substitute for sugary and/or caffeinated drinks I can get, since water fountains are virtually non-existent. But I would gladly take up carrying my own canteen if all beverage containers were made of glass, sale of bottled water was prohibited and production of drinks using water was limited. Somewhere out there is a logical answer to this dilemma. J. Cousins, Bowmanville