2013 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Dag Sinclair and Jason Quinn saw an opportunity for their school to use less plastic bottles. They proposed that all 700 students at their school receive a re-usable metal water bottle. These water bottles were a perfect complement to the school’s new spigot-style water fountains that another student won for their school two years ago.
Dag and Jason shared the following water bottle statistics, from the website Green Upgrader: “Plastic water bottles take over 700 years to begin composting; 90 of the cost of a bottled water is the bottle itself; 80% of plastic water bottles are not recycled; 38,000,000 plastic bottles go to the dump per year in America from bottled water; 24,000,000 gallons of oil are needed to produce 1,000,000 plastic bottles; the average American consumes 167 bottles of water a year.” With that in mind, they felt it was important to “use personal metal water bottles that can be refilled and reused for long periods of time to reduce the use of plastic water bottles and reduce the effects of plastic water bottles and their contents on people and the environment.”
Thanks to a contribution from Nutrien, the school was able to provide a re-usable water bottle for every student. even better, Dag and Jason were able to talk to their principal to make sure that next year’s new grade nine students will receive a water bottle too!
“The goal is to provide the students with metal water bottles that will be paid for from the money granted from the contest this year and the following years in the students fees.”