The Council of Canadians and CUPE Ontario present:

There is a growing movement to ban the sale of bottled water in municipalities and institutions like school boards and university campuses. The cities of Toronto, London, Owen Sound, and many other Ontario communities, have banned the sale of bottled water in municipal facilities.  So have school boards in Ottawa and Waterloo.

Building on this momentum, the Council of Canadians and CUPE Ontario hosted an educational tour in Spring 2009, to encourage more municipalities and other institutions to take practical action to “Unbottle It!,” and tap into clean, safe, public water. Maude Barlow, Council of Canadians’ Chairperson and Senior Advisor on Water to the President of the UN General Assembly, and Sid Ryan, CUPE Ontario President, toured 21 Ontario communities to raise awareness about this important issue and encourage people into action.

Canada has one of the best drinking water systems in the world, but the bottled water industry has worked hard to undermine our faith in public water. The industry sells water – what should be a shared public resource – for huge profits. Producing and transporting bottled water requires large amounts of fossil fuels, and plastic water bottles continue to end up by the millions in local landfills.

• Unbottle It! tour report (PDF 2.18MB)
• See the Tour dates and locations »
• Sign our petition to the Ontario Legislative Assembly »
• Download A guide on how to obtain a bottled water ban in your community » (PDF 2MB)
• Download the Unbottle It! window sign »
• Unbottle It! tour presentation by Slobodan P. Simonovic (PDF 224KB)
• Clean Water, Green Jobs: A Stimulus Package for Sustainable Water
  Infrastructure Investments, December 19, 2008 (PDF 450KB)

• The war against water bottles, The Toronto Sun, January 25, 2009
• Avoiding bottled water keeps you, planet healthy, The Windsor Star , January 24, 2009
• Barlow urges bottled water ban , The Midland Free Press, January 23, 2009
• Barlow speaks against bottled water: Activist to give presentation in city Friday, The Sun Times (Owen Sound), January 21, 2009
• Activists seek ban on bottled water, Windsor Star, January 13
• UN water adviser to meet with trustees , The London Free Press, January 13
• Tour aims to promote ban of plastic water bottles, Toronto Star, January 12

It’s time to “Unbottle It,” and tap into public drinking water!