Monday, May 05, 2008

A minor improvement in Canada

Now here's the kind of silly bit of trivia that you only find out about when the law is lifted.
Islanders pop tabs as P.E.I.'s 'can ban' ends
A new era begins on Prince Edward Island Saturday as retailers can once again legally sell canned carbonated beverages for the first time in almost a quarter-century.

Selling pop in cans has been banned in PEI for about 25 years?!? (Where's the interrobang on this keyboard, anyway?)

The ban was put in place in 1984 to protect jobs at the local Pepsi
bottling plant and to protect the environment. The province also banned
pop from being sold in plastic bottles.

It's the way a whole generation of Prince Edward Islanders quenched
their thirst, unless they brought back canned pop from the mainland,
which Islanders did by the trunkful. For a kid, a can of pop in a lunch
box was a status symbol.

It was pressure from Islanders themselves that convinced the new
government to end the can ban, which became a campaign issue in the
provincial election last May.

The lifting of the ban has been twice delayed while details of the deposit and return system for cans were worked out.

Hunh. By the way for our 'merican readers, pop means soda.

But P.E.I. Green party Leader Sharon Labchuk said she won't be celebrating.

"It's a sad day, not only for the environment in P.E.I., but for the
environment in those far-away countries where aluminum, actually
bauxite, is mined under extremely exploitive conditions of the local
people and the environment," Labchuk told CBC News.

"This is a huge step backwards for the environment and social justice."



Yes, the far away land of Quebec, where most bauxite comes from. Recycle the cans, asshat.


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