McGuinty, Michelle Obama urged to impose Tax-Deposit System on Soft Drinks to Fight Obesity

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Environmental and Energy Lawyers fighting Climate Change

Jul 19, 2012, 11:53 ET

TORONTO, July 19, 2012 /CNW/ - Ontario-based environmental lawyer David McRobert is urging the McGuinty government to impose a combination of a tax and deposit system on soft drinks and other non-refillable containers to fight obesity, create local jobs and improve the environmental and energy performance of the systems.

McRobert says there is no need to wait for the results of the work of McGuinty's Healthy Kids panel before moving forward on a new approach to managing soft drink containers.

McRobert has outlined the virtues of deposit systems in a new book, My Municipal Recycling Program made me fat and sick: How well intentioned environmentalists teamed up with the soft drink industry to promote obesity and injure workers, published earlier this week.

McRobert also is recommending the idea and his book to U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and urges them to look at the effectiveness of Ontario's beer container system in balancing environmental, economic and social factors.

McRobert says that "the time has come to revisit the policy choice made in the 1970s to allow the soft drink industry to have packaging freedom and market their products at prices that are absurdly low relative to healthier alternatives such as milk and unsweetened juice." "In the 1960s when I was a kid, soft drinks were a treat," he says. "Now some folks have four or five sugar-laden soft drinks a day."

McRobert says that the taxes and unredeemed deposits could be used to fund provision of clean tap water to Ontario's aboriginal peoples and educate consumers about healthier diets and lifestyles.

He has emailed an e-version of his new book to the U.S. First Lady and Mayor Bloomberg and has forwarded two hard copies of the book by express post to the Honourable Deb Matthews, the Ontario Minister of the Health.

Link to Book web site:

http://www.amazon.com/Municipal-Recycling-Program-made-environmentalists/dp/1470127466/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342614471&sr=8-1&keywords=My+Municipal+Recycling+program+made+me+fat

Information on David McRobert

Former In-house Counsel (1994-2010), Environmental Commissioner of Ontario

www.davidmcrobert.ca

http://www.lacieg2s.ca/law/dsm-vita.htm

http://www.lacieg2s.ca/law/

David's new book is available as an Adobe PDF file to the media by e-mail. It also is available as a Kindle on Amazon.com.

He can be reached at:

[email protected]

T. 416 487 4677; Cell: 647 234 4677

Background on McGuinty Healthy Kids Panel: