The City of Hamilton is looking at a few ways to reduce single use plastics — including banning the sale of water bottles at city-owned facilities.
This is part of the city's Strategy to Reduce Single-Use Plastics (SUPs), which was approved by city council on Feb. 24, 2021 and included 14 action items.
The ban on disposable water bottle sales is another potential action in the city's larger attempt to ban SUPs from its facilities.
In relation to this ban, the city is working to promote refillable water bottles at its rec centres and arenas. The city plans to replace outdoor public fountains with water bottle refill stations, install more water bottle stations at the city's arenas and require cafes and other food service businesses on city property to provide compost-friendly containers instead of plastic.
The city is also looking at banning single-use coffee cups and water bottles at city-run events.
In the past, the city has run pilots aimed at getting folks to use refillable coffee cups at city-run facilities, including one that ran from February to April at three city arenas. The goal was to incentivize people to bring reusable cups by offering a 15-cent discount. The ransomware attack on city services made it impossible for the city to collect usable data on the project.
Ward 13 Coun. Alex Wilson, who sits on the Waste Management Committee which met this week, asked for a timeline on when the bans will start to be implemented.
Senior waste management project manager Ryan Kent said the SUP ban is dependent on when the city can have water bottle filling stations available, especially when it comes to city-run events.
"That's the piece that we're really trying to figure out," he said.
One of the options, Kent said, was for event organizers at public festivals to pay for a water truck to provide drinking water. He said the city may require water refill stations as part of contracts and agreements to get city approval for events, like Supercrawl, Festival of Friends and other public events.
He said making the transition will be easier in city-owned facilities, like rec centres and arenas.
"If we're talking about someone running a cafe here at city hall, for example, it should be easier for us to put it in a contract."
