Inter-A Composite 2012

1. Inter-A Composite 2012

2. Introduction To Our Project • Disposable plastic containers are slowly eating up our resources being thrown in the landfills. • These bottles usually not being recycled and end up polluting our environment • Instead of buying reusable water bottles and filling them with water from home people are constantly buying plastic water bottles which end up in the garbage. • You can go to the store and buy any BPA free water bottle and start making a difference! • Using fewer plastic bottles will preserve our oil supply and keep our environment clean, which will contribute to saving the world. Just by using a re-usable water bottle you can be your own superhero! • People are concerned that disposable plastic water bottles pose a health risk, and for the most part they are right. • Many of the chemicals that are used to make these products can seep into the water inside the bottle. • Trying to avoid these bottles is the best solution

3. Its not just us. • The media has gotten into this topic as well. They run commercials to try and help save the planet. • They show you what happens when you use one-use water bottles.

5. Rationale • Plastic water bottles require a huge amount of energy to produce, manufacture and transport. If the production of water bottles was cut in half, the amount of fossil fuels used for energy would be GREATLY decreased, meaning that there would be less pollution • Landfills are overflowing with the large amount of water bottles that we are putting into them. Billions of water bottles take up valuable landfill space and start to leak toxic additives into the groundwater • Tons of plastic water bottles end up in garbage cans everyday. Even more water bottles become litter in parks, schools and malls.

6. Describe • Our group wants to make this world a better place by reducing the amount of plastic water bottles in our community. • It is a privilege to aver free, fresh drinking water in Canada when many places around the world this is out of reach. • It is not possible to ban all bottled water, we can however cut down the manufacturing of all these harmful bottles. • Having some bottled water around is a good think in case disaster strikes and there is no more tap water around. • 22million plastic water bottles are discarded yearly, this causes a huge problem for the landfills because the water bottles break down and leak toxins into the groundwater • This will cut down the amount of water bottles thrown out at schools everyday

7. Background • We will be starting here in our home town of surrey and the goal is to move to the Metro Vancouver area and then hopefully into the interior. • In Canada the sales of plastic water bottles have increased largely over the past decade. • Between 2002 and 2005 the sales of water bottles have doubled • In 2002 there were 15 billion dollars worth of water bottles sold In Canada, in 2005 the number doubled to 30 billion • In British Columbia we have a population of about 4.5 million people and 78 percent of them use plastic water bottles. • Approximately 30 percent of British Columbians recycle, imagine how much we could reduce the pollution if we got that number higher.

8. Description • Crew Members; Sustainability Team and volunteers from the lower mainland. • Selling water bottles for $7.50. Presentations at schools, libraries, and local centers for educating the community. • Socialites/Go-getters will talk to the city hall about replacing the vending machines with huge water dispensers and fountains. Bottles Drives to raise money. • Setting up a WBR Marathon to promote our campaign and the water bottles. Also, the marathon will raise awareness about the usage of plastic water bottles. • Our initiative is to get schools to let some of the students yearly fees pay for a reusable water bottle

9. Budget • - Brochures: roughly 20 cents a piece. • Re-usable water bottles: $6 per bottle. • If we have a sponsor, some of this cost may be eliminated. • Sponsors; Wal-Mart, Nalgene. From Wal-Mart and Nalgene • we can receive re-usable water bottles to sell for fundraising. • If our proposal isn't accepted by our desired sponsors, we can purchase reusable water bottles from the manufacturing business for $6.00 and sell our bottles for $7.50, for a profit of $1.50.

10. Timeline • Public involvement is a big part of our campaign, this is why we will frequently attend public schools and show up at events to promote reusable water bottles. • We will push our campaign forward by getting strong sponsors which could help us in reducing the plastic water bottle usage. By having a sponsor such as Wal-Mart our campaign could skyrocket to the top and everyone would know to go out and get a reusable water bottle • According to the HWSSB, over 2.7million tons of plastic is used in the manufacturing of water bottles every YEAR! • In America this translates to about 1.5million barrels of crude oil a year, which is enough to fuel 100,000 cars for the entire year. • We need to cut down the plastic used to help save our environment

11. Indicators • Tracking the usage levels of bottled water from year-to-year will provide us with a good indicator of the success of our campaign. • Statistics Canada tracks bottled water usage in many ways, for example the organization has information on the percentage of households using bottled water as their primary source of water, and millions of hectolitres of bottled water sold per year. • A decrease in either of these areas in British Columbia would be a sign that our plan is having an effect of people. • A simultaneous increase in the sale of reusable water bottles would also be a good way of determining if this project was encouraging people to switch from a single-use bottle to a reusable one.