Bottled water not all bad

By Savannah Hall

The meeting of Calgary City Council’s intergovernmental affairs committee shot down an investigation into the option of banning bottled water in the city of Calgary. With a vote of 7-3, Calgarians will still see bottles of water in the shelves and coolers of their favourite store. This comes after the Federation of Canadian Municipalities sent Calgary a resolution proposing that municipalities ban or phase out the use of bottled water on municipal property. This raises a number of problems for our fair city.

One problem is obesity. If water is no longer an option, people may resort to buying pop. We and our southern neighbours have been warned over and over that a growing percentage of our population is carrying around an unhealthy number of extra pounds. Pop is loaded with empty calories that harm many people’s diets. If water is taken away as a healthy option, people will have no choice but high-calorie drinks. This also fails to solve the original problem, as the soft drink option also leaves us with an abundance of useless, empty bottles.

As mentioned in the meeting, 40 per cent of single-use water bottles end up in landfills. They do harm the environment. Everyday we are bombarded with more information about how the Earth is falling deeper and deeper into critical condition and we need to change our lifestyles in order to sustain the environment. It seems pretty silly we can’t just make small changes to our habits, such as using re-usable water bottles.

People need to put things into perspective — is it necessary to buy a bottle of water everyday when there are an abundant number of taps and fountains? The choice to purchase bottled water should still be there, however, for the instances where it is a choice between buying a bottle of water or pop. It is harmful to the environment and your wallet to buy bottled water, so buy a water filter, which can be used at home to fill a re-usable water bottle. Save the environment, while keeping fit and having fun at the same time.