Bottled water will not be for sale when the new concession at the Banff recreation centre opens in March as part of the municipality’s ongoing efforts to go green.
The Town is in the process of putting up signs to let customers know they will not find plastic bottled water for sale in the vending machines or in the new concession.
Fountains have been equipped with a special spout to make it easy to fill reusable water bottles and they are asking all groups using the facility to not bring in bottled water.
Mayor Karen Sorensen said Banff’s drinking water is of the highest quality.
“It’s fresh and pure, and therefore, the need for bottled water in our community is not as necessary as perhaps in some other communities,” said Sorensen.
“The environmental benefits of not having plastic water bottles outweigh the convenience factor. I encourage everyone to buy a reusable water bottle and fill it up with Banff tap water, which is excellent.”
In May of last year, council banned the sale of bottled water at all public facilities and Town-sponsored events.
Neighbouring Canmore eliminated sales of bottled water in their facilities in 2009. That followed a resolution from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) urging municipalities to phase out the purchase and sale of bottled water in their facilities.
According to FCM’s resolution, bottled water consumes significant amounts of non-renewable fossil fuels to extract, package and transport water, creating unnecessary air quality and climate change impacts.
It takes about three litres of water to manufacture one plastic bottle of water. As well, bottled water companies use municipal water and groundwater sources when a growing percentage of Canadian municipalities have faced water shortages in recent years.
Although bottled water creates a container that can be recycled, between 40 per cent and 80 per cent of empty bottles end up as litter and are placed directly in the garage.
At Banff’s rec centre, there are at least 15 places where reusable bottles can be filled with tap water. In addition, it is expected the new concession will sell reusable water bottles.
Chad Townsend, Banff’s environmental coordinator, said eliminating the sale of plastic bottled water at the rec centre is the right thing to do.
“While bottled water containers are recyclable, we always promote reduced waste over recycling and the reality is not all of them do get recycled,” he said.
“We want to be environmental leaders and we think it makes a lot of sense.”
Meanwhile, it is expected the concession will open in early to mid-March. The name of the concession is not yet publicly available, as the lease has not been finalized.
