Manitoba seems to be leading the way in Universities around Canada to completely ban the sale of bottled water.  In March of 2009, the University of Winnipeg was the first University to completely ban bottled water.

As the world is continually becoming more environmentally conscious, Universities in Canada are keeping pace.  This initiative is a great way to support municipal water and reduce the amount of plastic bottles filling up the Worlds landfills.

The University is going to be building new fountains and fill stations throughout campus while also putting up new signage to increase awareness of these stations.  Brandon University and the student union want to challenge Universities across Canada and other institutions to follow suit and reclaim the tap to reduce bottled water.

6 Months (Left) Day 1 (Right)

Is the day in sight where the world may become plastic free?  Today, SkyTrax of London, On. has announced that it has teamed with ESP Solutions Ltd. of Vancouver to help bring their proprietary Oxo Bio-degradable additive technologies to the marketplace.  Oxo Biodegradation technology causes products made of plastics such as Polyethylene and Polypropylene (comprising 2/3 of all plastics material produced) to start to lose molecular weight when exposed to UV, heat and mechanical stress and then fragment and decompose into microscopic particles.

The picture is an example of a plastic food tray with Oxo biodegradation technology applied in the plastic.  The picture on the right is the food tray at Day 1, and the picture on the left is the food tray after 6 Months.  Something the world has never seen before.

Following  years of research, ESP Solutions Ltd. have been able to create “cutting edge” Oxo Bio technology, it is now possible to manufacture ‘biodegradable’ plastic materials that are non toxic and environmentally friendly, with the additional feature of being completely recyclable.

Polymer scientists believe that regular plastic materials may take up to 100 years or longer to break down causing an increasing plastic accumulation and potential pollution problem. This factor is both hazardous to our planet, our wildlife, overloading our landfills and creating a massive visually disastrous impact on the planet.

ESP Solutions Ltd. mandate is to offer those involved in the buying and selling of plastic packaging materials, a concept for achieving “sustainable solutions” and to provide added value by offering certain proprietary additives that will build customer confidence in these sustainable solutions.

Recent technological developments have reinforced the belief that the Oxo Biodegradable additive system will be economically effective in a wide variety of plastic product applications. Our intelligent additives support the three R’s of Packaging, REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE, and now they offer a 4^th R- REMOVE.

The benefit for businesses switching from conventional plastic packaging such as plastic bags, pallet wrap, plastic bubble wrap, plastic trays, plastic twine, shrink wrap and stretch wraps to degradable/bio-degradable packaging is undeniable. The cost of switching to degradable/bio-degradable plastic products is negligible; however there will be tremendous publicity to be gained by enhancing a company’s environmental image.  The companies that make their packaging “green” ….are perceived by consumers as “Environmentally good Stewards” and socially responsible.