Green Guelph

Here is a letter, submitted to the Guelph Mercury about the extensive testing that goes on in the Nestle Bottled Water plants.

John B. Challinor

Dear Editor – Re: “City applauded for efforts to cut back bottled water” (Guelph Mercury, Jan. 15).

In this well-written and balanced article, reporter Thana Dharmarajah quotes Council of Canadians national chair Maude Barlow as saying that “65 million empty plastic water bottles are thrown into landfills every year.” In Windsor earlier last week, Barlow claimed the figure was 650 million.

Both figures are incorrect.

About 93 per cent of Canadians have access to plastic beverage container recycling. Plastic bottle recycling rates nationally vary from 55 per cent to 93 per cent, with a national average of about 60 per cent, according to government and industry organizations responsible for collecting this information.

For example, according to Stewardship Ontario, a 2005 single family housing waste audit conducted over four seasons in Toronto found an 87.8 per cent recycling rate for plastic beverage containers. Stewardship Ontario also estimates that plastic water bottles account for less than one-fifth of one per cent of the municipal solid waste stream in Canada. If the bottled water industry was to disappear tomorrow, there would be no appreciable difference in the volume of refuse going to landfill.

Barlow is also quoted as stating that our industry is likely “inspected once a year, if not once every three years, whereas municipal tap water is tested continuously during and after treatment.”

This is also incorrect. Bottled water is held to the same scrutiny as tap water. Bottled water is regulated as a packaged food product by Health Canada through the Food and Drug Act.

With respect to testing, for example, the City of Guelph reportedly performed 18,800 tests on its water in 2007. Nestlé Waters Canada, which has a 40 per cent share of the Ontario market, performs more than 1,700 tests on its water supply daily or more in two weeks than the City of Guelph does in 12 months. A copy of our testing activities is available upon request. Testing is also conducted via regular, surprise inspections by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Health Canada, the Canadian Bottled Water Association and NSF International.

Nestlé Waters Canada subjects its finished products and source water to microbiological analysis every day that exceeds the microbiological requirements outlined in the Safe Water Drinking Act, which governs both municipal tap water and bottled water.

– John B. Challinor, director of corporate affairs, Nestlé Waters Canada, Guelph