Opening the taps for water bottles

An Island marketer has come up with a new campaign to cut down on single-use cans and plastic bottles on P.E.I.

Daniel Cousins has ordered hundreds of stickers that say, "FILL UP HERE." He and a handful of volunteers will be encouraging Island businesses to post the stickers in their windows, to let people know they can stop in to fill up their reusable water bottles without having to make a purchase.

"This whole idea started from me walking to an event in early April and starting to see the cans and bottles coming out from the snowbanks," said Cousins.

"This day I had had a difficulty finding a place to refill my water bottle because there's not that many places to do it in public."

He thought there must be a simple way to make tap water more accessible.

Cousins said the sticker campaign cost about $200, and more than half that money was raised by him and other volunteers picking up discarded cans and bottles from parks and streets and turning them in for the deposit.

The Fill Up Here initiative starts at the same time the City of Charlottetown is starting a new campaign to get more newcomers and tourists drinking tap water.

The city says some of them may not be aware Charlottetown's tap water is naturally filtered ground water that's perfectly drinkable. It offers refill stations at several public locations.

Last week, the City of Summerside announced it's adding refill stations to its boardwalk.

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