Burnaby student campaigns to end bottled water sales at SFU

As part of a series highlighting the work of young people in addressing the climate crisis, writer Patricia Lane interviews Mireta Strandberg-Salmon, who led a campaign to ban bottled water sales in her high school and at Simon Fraser University.

In 2017, Mireta Strandberg-Salmon led her high school, Moscrop Secondary in Burnaby, B.C., to ban vending machine sales of bottled water. In January 2021, her student-led “Ban the Bottle” campaign persuaded Simon Fraser University, where more than 33,000 bottles of water were sold yearly, to follow suit. The university’s decision removed half a tonne of plastic from landfills and reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 2.75 metric tonnes (the equivalent of 1,170 fewer litres of gasoline). Last month, SFU invited her to join its Circular Economy Working Group.

Read the full story here.