CBC News - Water stations to discourage Montrealers from buying single-use plastic bottles.
Updated: Jan 10, 2022
Marine biologist offers Montreal festivals an alternative to single-use water bottles
Rachel Labbé-Bellas is a marine biologist whose disgust at finding so many microplastics in the ocean has turned her into an entrepreneur, building water stations to discourage Montrealers from buying single-use plastic bottles.(Submitted by Rachel Labbé-Bellas)
O'land Station is a water refill station created by montreal scientist-turned-entrepreneur Rachel Labbé-Bellas
Planning on attending Osheaga in Montreal this summer? Bring along a reusable water bottle and fill it up as often as you'd like — for free.
You can do that now thanks to a local marine biologist and her determination to keep plastic out of the oceans.
This summer, Rachel Labbé-Bellas is unveiling her new water-refill stations at the summer festival — water-refill stations she's dubbed The Green Stop, designed to discourage people from using single-use plastic bottles and inspire environmental awareness.
Osheaga's promoter, Evenko, is launching a series of eco-friendly initiatives this year, and they include allowing people in with empty, reusable water bottles that they can fill up at The Green Stop — a project, says Labbé-Bellas, she hopes to expand to festivals and other events across the greater Montreal region.
"You've probably noticed there aren't that many water fountains in Montreal," Labbé-Bellas, 32, told CBC Montreal's Daybreak recently.
"If there are, they're sitting off in a corner; they're quite dirty, and a lot of times, they don't work."
She says eventually, she hopes to offer more than just clean, fresh water.
Visitors to her O'land Station will one day be able to buy reusable bottles there, get sunscreen without toting around a single-use container and buy other concert necessities that don't create more waste.
Read the full report at:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/the-green-stop-reduce-waste-montreal-1.5173794
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