Beverage Companies Are Fighting Montreal's Ban on Plastic Water Bottles

Montreal's mayor has been taking on some pretty big environmental challenges as of late.

After implementing an all-out ban on lightweight plastic bags and grocery bags earlier this year, Denis Coderre has another source of urban pollution in his crosshairs—plastic bottles.

While that might be good news for environmentally conscious Montrealers, it definitely wasn't for the Canadian Beverage Association (CBA), which represents more than 60 drink brands in Canada, including big heavies like Pepsi, Coca-Cola, and Nestlé.

"We spoke about plastic bags and now we're onto plastic bottles," Coderre told the CBC. "The reality of plastic in our environment is a problem."

Needless to say, the CBA wasn't thrilled when they learned that the mayor of Canada's second-biggest city wanted to ban plastic bottles. In a press statement, the association suggested that it was fundamentally up to consumers to decide whether plastic is an acceptable method of beverage packaging.

"The CBA and its members are proud to provide Canadians with a wide variety of beverages," it said. "We support the consumer's right to choose the beverage that meets their needs and preferences, whether that be tap or bottled water or a combination of both."

They also boasted of the sustainability of their bottles. "Nationally we currently recover 70 percent of our containers, and we make continuous improvements. [Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET)] bottles can also be recycled many times to create new ones while saving 50 to 60 percent of the energy required to produce a new bottle from virgin material."

In a separate press release, the organization that represents water bottlers in Quebec also said that they were surprised by the mayor's initiative and asked to be consulted by municipal officials before any policy changes were implemented.

According to documents obtained by the CBC, the Canadian Beverage Association has signed on to Quebec's registry of lobbyists in hopes of protecting their business interests in Montreal. "We want the City of Montreal to reject the proposal to ban water bottles on its territory," the association reportedly wrote, emphasizing that plastic bottles are 100 percent recyclable across Quebec.

Coderre, for his part, says he is not opposed to dialogue with the beverage-industrial complex, but that they will also have to adapt to evolving environmental norms. "I'm not dogmatic; I'm very pragmatic in the approach," Coderre said. "It's a cultural shift."