Plastic Bottle removal letter

His Worship Mayor Ted Salci
and Members of the Municipal Council
City of Niagara Falls, Ontario
PO Box 1023
Niagara Falls, Ontario L2E 6X5 Canada
March 18, 2009

“There is nowhere to throw away to”

Dear Mayor Salci (Ted)

Congratulations to you Mayor Ted Salci and to your Council Members and also the Youth Council for stimulating such great action, eliminating the sale of bottle water as well as all beverages in plastic bottles within Municipal Buildings. Your decision is towards a positive tipping point that supports the web of life, nature, water, pollution reduction and reduces carbon emissions and the associated climate changes. David Suzuki has been a global leader in this environmental issue, so I am sure he will be most encouraged that you are requesting local residents to use safe and healthy Municipal tap water. As a major Tourism destination, a ‘Peace through Tourism’ educational brochure promoting Niagara Falls’ safe drinking water, will also reduces use of plastic water bottles within the Tourism Industry.

The Pugwash / Science for Peace Global Issues Project, Experts Roundtable on Water, have noted that Nature needs water to 'prime the pump' for the hydrological cycle. The world's population is already using some of Natures needs, while the planet heats up. Additional goals must include conservation and reduction in water use.

The role of public education is vital with scientific facts to back them. Recently I was in Hawaii, and heard about the plastic mat, half the size of the US, that is floating in the Pacific Ocean. How much plastic I wonder is in the Niagara River, or goes over Niagara Falls and into the Great Lakes? Your Earth Day clean up could focus on water and removal of plastics. The effects of all plastic’s have gone further than we expected. Plastics have been labeled as ‘disruptor of endocrine function’* a hormone in plastic which affects fertility in all species. This especially in the Great Lakes region. These hormones are poisonous to human babies and children.

Companies’ role is to be part of the solution. Send a message to companies that the Green Revolution has begun and their ‘out of the box’ expertise is needed to invent a positive future. All future products must be developed from ‘cradle to cradle’ and not end up as waste. “There is nowhere to throw away to”.

The Ontario Government has mandated Environmental Education and educators may be encouraging all schools to eliminate the use of all plastics in school grounds, to reduce pollution. I must compliment your schools who are experts at recycling. Please also, through your Niagara Falls Schools in Bloom program, encourage your School Boards to collect all plastics and eliminate the use of plastic bottles on school grounds.

Your sincerely


Dame Julia Morton-Marr, DStG, B.Ed., Dip T.
Founding President, IHTEC

* http://www.worldandi.com/public/2001/October/ee.html