The Mayor Of Montreal Wants To Ban Plastic Water Bottles Completely

Following a ban on disposable plastic bags scheduled to go into effect in 2018, Mayor Denis Coderre of Montreal has announced that he has plans to institute a ban on plastic water bottles.

"I raised the subject of plastic water bottles because it's an environmental nuisance — more than 700 million of these single-use bottles end up in Quebec's landfills every year," Coderre explained in an email to the Global Post. "In Montreal, we are lucky to have excellent tap water, which is tested several times per day. We tend to forget that our water is of such good quality, that some companies even bottle it directly and then people find themselves paying for it."

At the moment, only a very small number of cities have been able to ban plastic water bottles entirely. In Concord, Massachusetts, water is now sold in paper cartons, and plastic water bottles are banned in San Francisco and Hamburg, but only in city-owned buildings.

If the bill succeeds, Montreal, with a population of 1.65 million people, would be the largest city to eliminate plastic water bottles.