Toronto To Curb Use Of Plastic Containers

Toronto, Ontario (AHN) - The battle with the bottle, whether plastic or glass, is being waged on different fronts to spare landfills from too much waste materials, cut costs and save the planet.

Toronto targets not just bottled-water jugs, but other throwaway plastic containers like cups, food packs and bags. According to Geoff Rathbone, Toronto's general manager of solid waste, by including other plastic products in its campaign to reduce production and use, by 2010, the city hopes to divert 70 percent of the waste sent to the dumps.

One proposal from Councilor Bill Saundercook is to charge a royalty on water taken by water filling companies from the city, which filters the water and sells it in bottles.

Toronto residents throw away about 100 million plastic bottles each year. About 65 percent are recycled while 35 percent are mixed with other types of garbage and end up as landfill.

Meanwhile, due to production costs, Terra d'Aligi Tatone wine bottles from Italy have become thinner and lighter, according to Globe and Mail food columnist Beppi Crosariol. Its 2004 vintage is now in bottles that are 5.29 ounces (150 grams) lighter, down from 22.9 ounces (650 grams).

The shift to lighter packaging was due to prompting of British supermarket chain Tesco which pushed for a low-carbon economy among its suppliers. Tesco chief executive officer Sir Terry Leahy is campaigning for all of Tesco's 70,000 products to carry carbon-emission labels, similar to nutritional data on food items.