Think Global, Drink Local

Proposal for Increased Implementation of Water Refill Stations

in Richmond Community Facilities
Think its okay to drink bottled water because youll recycle it? Think again.
Project Leaders: Lilian Lau, Elizabeth To, Cherrie Lam University of British Columbia
The manufacture and recycling processes of bottled water contribute to high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, environmental damage, water contamination, and significant health concerns, which can be avoided by drinking Greater Vancouvers clean, fresh, and free tap water.

http://tinyurl.com/idtapthatrichmond http://facebook.com/idtapthatrichmond

We initiated Id Tap That Richmond Against Bottled Water, aiming to (1) educate the public on the negative impacts of bottled water, (2) press for more water bottle filling stations in public areas, and (3) push for policy to create bottled-water-free zones in Richmond schools, where bottled water sales will be banned.

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Table of Contents
About Us At Issue At Issue: The Microeconomics Executive Summary Richmond community facilities should install more water refill stations! Heres why o Water refill stations benefit Richmond o Recycling doesnt cut it; The Stats o What do we mean by water refill stations? Upgrading current fountains Novannis Elkay EZH2O Bottle Filling Stations Waterfillz Indoor Stationary Refill Stations and Mobile Events Refill Stations Other retro-fitting options: Spout and Gooseneck o We know there are obstacles Its expensive! Maybe we can help Bottled water disposal only contributes a negligible amount to waste; we say otherwise o Reducing bottled water is possible Richmond secondary schools are on board Id Tap That is reaching the community Local support against bottled water We want more water refill stations! 2 2 3 3 4 4 4 6 6 8 9 10 10 10 10 10 10 11 12

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About Us
Hello! Lilian, Elizabeth, Ricky, and I (Cherrie) are four UBC students currently working on an Advocacy Based Learning project for our second-year Microeconomic Policy class at UBC. Inspired by previous high school involvements in Metro Vancouver's Youth4Tap Initiative, we started Id Tap That Richmond Against Bottled Water, an environmental group striving to make a change in our community, while applying our microeconomics education in action. With the collaboration of many secondary schools in Richmond, as well as community partners like Metro Vancouver regional water services, Id Tap That plans to deter the negative impacts of the bottled water industry; hoping to raise awareness to encourage further consumption of tap water, and to implement more water bottle filling stations in Richmond.

At Issue
Greater Vancouver's taps serve some of the highest quality water in the world; in fact, the water is tested over 370 times a day with state-of-the-art-filtration systems, and Metro Vancouver guarantees that there is no need for extra filtration at home. With such readily accessible clean water, the production and consumption of bottled water has become of high concern, because the manufacture and recycling processes contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, environmental damage, and even water contamination through toxins leaked by the manufacture process. Moreover, only an average of 5% of water bottles actually gets recycled. As well, the regulation of bottled water by the Food and Drug Act is much more lenient than that provided by the BC Drinking Water Protection Act and BC Drinking Water Protection Regulation, meaning that consumers of bottled water could be exposing themselves to health risks, as the Food and Drug Act allows certain levels of fecal coliform, while the local tap water regulations do not. According to Metro Vancouvers 2009 Tap Water Campaign, a 20% reduction in bottled water consumption can divert 7 million bottles from local landfills; 3.35 million kilograms of greenhouses gases; and 12,800 barrels of crude oil used.

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At Issue: The Microeconomics

The sale of bottled water creates market inefficiency, because the less expensive and regularly-tested local water is of equal or even better quality. Companies have falsely marketed bottled water to be cleaner and more convenient; which deters consumer confidence on local water supply, and allows corporations to take advantage and impose unnecessary high prices. The industry also generates negative externalities, imposing environmental and health problems. In order to reach Richmonds zero waste goals, bottled water consumption needs to be reduced.

Executive Summary
We plan to reduce the consumption of disposable bottled water in the City of Richmond, involving a three-pronged approach, followed by evaluation: 1. EDUCATION: Raise awareness and educate the public on tap waters benefits. Id Tap That has been connecting with high school students to initiate awareness projects and has generated social media presence. 2. ACCESSIBILITY: Add more water refill stations in community facilities for higher convenience of drinking tap water. 3. POLICY: Implement policy to ban the sale of bottled water on public municipal properties, like schools and community centers.

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Richmond Community Facilities should install more water refill stations! Heres why:
Water Refill Stations Benefit Richmond
With zero-waste goals ahead in Richmond, installing water refill stations will not only reduce energy that is necessary to manufacture bottled water, but also significantly divert waste (of discarded bottles), and protect the environment. As well, water refill stations are a sustainable service, do not require significant maintenance, and can make a big difference in the community.

Recycling Doesnt Cut it; The Stats

According to Metro Vancouver: Recycling doesnt mean old disposable bottles become new disposable bottles. A majority of single-use PET plastic bottles are down-cycled and will only be used as degraded components. This means that new plastic bottles are made from non-renewable resources, like non-biodegradable PET plastic. PET from crude oil and PET from plants are essentially identical just plain old PET.

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Around 20% of plastic that goes through recycling is not recyclable, and needs to be buried or burned. It takes of a plastic bottles worth of oil to produce one plastic bottle. It takes more water to produce a plastic bottle than the volume of the bottle itself. The manufacture and transportation of bottled water in BC in 2007 emitted between 12,922,578 and 16,766,604 kgs of greenhouse gases enough to heat an average Canadian home for 2,177 years.

According to Encorp Pacific recycling reports: Around 158,675,107 plastic containers ended up in landfills in 2011, which is enough to fill 77,329 full-size pickup trucks.

According to the Polaris Institute report: Bottled water is 240 10,000 times more expensive than tap water, despite more than 25% of bottled water coming from local tap water systems. Bottled water has manufactured demand; just as the executive of Perrier commented, It struck me that all you had to do is take the water out of the ground and then sell it for more than the price of wine, milk, or for that matter, oil. Bottled water plants are typically inspected by government once every 3 6 years; while Metro Vancouver tests our water 136,000 times each year. Arsenic, mercury and bromides have been detected in bottled water. Schools and universities are increasingly signing exclusive beverage contracts with major companies like Coca-Cola and Pepsi; companies with corporate agendas to turn students into life-long consumers.

(Source of statistics: Shifting to Sustainable Drinking Water - https://circle.ubc.ca/bitstream/ handle/2429/34064/GRS_497E_ShiftingtoSustainableDrinkingWater_CLEAN_0.pdf?sequence=1)

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What Do We Mean by Water Refill Stations? Upgrading Current Fountains

According to The Manly Council Water Fountain Project: How councils can reinvent the water fountain, Bottled Water Alliance (2009): Two-thirds of people said they would drink less bottled water if there were better water fountains in their communities.

Water refill stations already in use: Novannis Elkay EZH2O Bottle Filling Stations
The Richmond school district and Sauder School of Business at UBC are just among some of the venues that have upgraded to Elkays bottled water refill stations, with sleek wall-fitting structures that cool and filtrate. Watch here to see what Elkays EZH20 retro-fit stations are like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPl3lFQD1Hc Results in the Burnaby school district that adopted water refill stations in its schools: "Mr. Foley helped us to install high tech water refill stations in every school in Burnaby, saving 200,000 bottles in our first four months."
(http://www.bchydro.com/news/conservation/2012/burnaby-schools-energy-manager.html)

According to Burnaby School District website, "Water bottle filling stations have been contributed to over 900,000 reusable bottle fill ups.

For more info visit: www.novanni.ca/userFiles/LKWC-C0612.pdf www.novanni.ca/elkay-water-coolers www.novanni.ca/userFiles/LKWC-C1111-web-1.pdf

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Water refill stations already in use: Waterfillz Stationary Indoor Refill Stations and Mobile Events Refill Station

According to the Waterfillz website: WaterFillz Single Refill Station Complete with full 3 micron sediment & carbon block filters, and UV purification Refrigerates 20L of water on less than 55 watts of power at peak Filter and water line recycling program, entire product made from sustainable, and recyclable components and exterior Unit connects to water source via 3/8 water line, and requires drain access note drain can be remote from the unit and in another room or area No moving parts, only 1x per year annual maintenance required (depending on intake water quality) Stunning presentation of sustainable message or corporate sponsorship decals on exterior Free not a coin operated machine, allows use in combination with beverage contracts not selling a competitive product

Waterfillz stations have been installed at UBC and SFU; as well, they have been used at many mobile events, including at the year-end festival of Steveston-London Secondary School in 2011. They also provide a great opportunity for advertising space, and use less than a lightbulbs worth of energy! Visit http://waterfillz.com for more information. Watch Justin Richie, the UBC Sustainability Coordinators testimonial: http://vimeo.com/35734860

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Other retro-fitting options: Spout and Gooseneck

From Inside the Bottle, Spotlight on Water Fountain Retrofitting and Upgrading report: Retro-fitting fountain fixtures are designed to make fountains more convenient and more accessible through higher efficiency. These fixtures provide a stronger flow of water so that containers can be filled more quickly. Furthermore they can be added to already existing water fountains. The spout fixture allows a refillable water bottle to be filled up easily by using one hand to press the container against the lever, much like soft drink dispensers in fast food restaurants. A more familiar shape in relation to household kitchens, gooseneck fixtures have a small lever towards its base that can be pushed to release water. The longer length of the neck will enable containers to be filled while being held upright, unlike with traditional water fountains. Gooseneck fixtures are used in the UBC CIRS building.

For a more thorough analysis on all retrofitting and upgrading options, please read: http://www.insidethebottle.org/Student_Resources_files/Retrofitting%26Upgrading.pdf

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We Know There are Obstacles

Its expensive! Maybe we can help
Id Tap That Richmond Against Bottled Water is determined to increase tap water
accessibility in Richmond. We are currently working to apply for funding through community grants, from the Richmond Youth Foundation, Generation Green, RBC Blue Water Project, and more. We would be more than happy to help subsidize costs of implementing water refill stations with grant money if community facilities are on board.

Bottled water disposal only creates a negligible amount of waste; we say otherwise
This assumption has neglected to account for the waste in the forms of greenhouse gases, toxic contamination, and environmental damage through the externalities of the manufacture and recycling processes. Please see the statistics on pages 4 and 5 for more detail on how bottled water erodes the environment.

Reducing Bottled Water is Possible

Richmond secondary schools are on board
Local secondary schools have already installed Elkays water bottle filling stations, which has significantly promoted reusable water bottle usage. Moreover, high school environmental clubs from Burnett, McRoberts, and MacNeill Secondary Schools have been actively engaged in the bottled-water issue in recent years. In 2011 and 2012, Burnetts Eco Green Team ran booths at the Steveston Farmers and Artisans Market for Bottled Water vs. Tap Water taste tests, and presented a display at the Thompson Community Picnic.

Id Tap That is reaching the community

Id Tap That Richmond Against Bottled Water is currently collaborating with
high school students across Richmond to initiate projects to raise awareness for

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choosing tap water over bottled water. We have secured a news article to be written by one of Richmond Reviews youth reporters, Kelly Chen, as part of R-VIEWs December publication, on the issue of bottled water. We will also be presenting at T.A.B.L.E. 38 for Richmond student leaders on November 20th. As well, we are working to get connected further with news media, increase awareness through further marketing strategies, engage elementary school students with bottled water issues, and push for further implementation of water bottle filling stations, and more. By educating the community before we take steps to banning plastic water bottle sales, we can encourage Richmond citizens to take steps towards tap water consumption: like bring reusable bottles or mugs with them regularly. We have established a Facebook page with our mission and educational information, in order to reach out to the youth in Richmond and spark their enthusiasm for supporting our cause. Within a week and a half, 75 people have liked our page on Facebook, indicating the youths interest in this problem and our plans potential to gain more supporters. Through social media, we have encouraged people to fill a Bottled Water Awareness survey. This survey aims to investigate the habits of Richmond citizens, and their knowledge on tap water and plastic bottled water. After the main campaign, we will conduct another survey to review any progress or difference of the Richmond citizens habits, and how they respond to increased accessibility to tap water.

Local support against bottled water

Metro Vancouver Tap Water Campaign (http://www.metrovancouver.org/REGION/TAPWATER/) Metro Vancouver Youth4Tap and Youth4Action (http://youth4tap.org/) (http://www.metrovancouver.org/region/Youth4Action/) Waterlution (http://www.waterlution.org) Bottled Water Free Day Canada (http://backthetap.ca) RangiChangi Roots Vancouver (www.rangichangi.ca)

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We want more water refill stations!

Richmond youth are increasingly environmentallyconscious, and we dont want convenient water in PET single-use bottles not if it generates a plethora of pollution and poses health risks. We would much rather take a sip of our fresh, clean, local tap water. We demand that Richmond community facilities consider creating installing more water bottle filling stations. Richmond needs to stand by its zero-waste goals and make decisions that will benefit future generations. Having bottled-water-free zones in Richmond is simply a matter of time. And that time is now.

Think its okay to serve us bottled water? Think again.