Butchart Gardens stops selling plastic water bottles, says bring your own

CaptionCloseA top draw Pacific Northwest tourist attraction, The Butchart Gardens north of Victoria will no longer sell single-use plastic water bottles, in its words, "to drive awareness of the serious threat plastic poses to our environment."Visitors...

Butchart Gardens stops selling plastic water bottles, says bring your own

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A top draw Pacific Northwest tourist attraction, The Butchart Gardens north of Victoria will no longer sell single-use plastic water bottles, in its words, "to drive awareness of the serious threat plastic poses to our environment."

Visitors to the Gardens, located on Vancouver Island's Saanich Peninsula, are being encouraged to bring their own water bottles and fill them at one of four double-filtered water stations located around the 55-acre attraction.

The move saves Butchart Gardens the cost of disposing of 80,000 single-use plastic water bottles each year.

The Gardens management cited a study by Ottawa's Polaris Institute, that bottled water is 240 to 10,000 times as expensive as tap water, and that oil used for the production of bottled water in 2010 was equivalent to putting a million cars on the road.

"With this initiative we aim to drive awareness of the serious threat plastic poses to our environment, in particular single use plastic water bottles," said Bob Parrotta, the Gardens' director of food services.

"We have chosen today to announce our new direction in an effort to bring attention to World Water Day which is marked on the 22nd of March every year.  It's a day to celebrate water and to prepare for how we manage water in the future."

Butchart Gardens will have reusable "keepsake" water bottles on sale for $3.95 (Canadian), the cost of purchasing a single-use serving.

Butchart Gardens is located in an old limestone quarry.  Jennie Butchart began creating a garden in the used-up quarry 113 years ago.  The Gardens have never acquired a corporate overlord, but remain owned and operated by Butchart family descendants.

The Gardens draw more than a million visitors each year, and are particularly known for their popularity with Japanese and Chinese visitors to Canada.

They do have a spectacular rival in the spring, namely gardens around Government House in Victoria, the residence of British Columbia's lieutenant governor, official representative of Queen Elizabeth II to the province.

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