Toronto may ban the sale of bottled water on city premises after London, Ont., voted for such a ban earlier this week, Mayor David Miller said Wednesday.

Miller told the Canadian Press that city council will examine how Toronto can curb bottled water waste as part of a larger effort to reduce the amount of garbage that ends up in landfills.

He added that the city's tap water is more pure than the leading brand of bottled water. A report outlining the city's options should be ready for councillors in November.

His comments came two days after city councillors in London voted to ban the sale of bottled water on city premises despite protests from the beverage industry.

The 15-3 vote late Monday came after heated debate in the municipality on the role of bottled water at city facilities such as city-owned buildings, arenas and community centres. Municipal officials have maintained that tap water costs about an eighth of a cent per litre while bottled water can range anywhere from 30 cents to $4 a bottle.

Environmentalists have said they are concerned by the amount of energy it takes to transport the bottles, as well as the waste produced by them, particularly when most areas of Canada have safe water supplies.

The Canadian Bottled Water Association, which represents about 100 bottlers across the country, said Tuesday it was disappointed with London's decision.

One of London's primary goals is to reduce the amount of plastic that goes into landfills, said association spokeswoman Elizabeth Griswold, adding "I don't think that'll be the result of the vote."

Two surveys have indicated that if bottled water is not made available to people, they will choose to buy other bottled beverages over tap water, she said.

"So they'll have the same amount of plastic to recycle," Griswold said.

The Nestlé solution

Last week, Nestlé Waters Canada, the company behind such bottled water brand names as Perrier, Vittel and Montclair, said in a news release that it also was opposed to the ban because it wouldn't do enough to curb waste or reduce the public's preference for bottled water over tap water.

"In an independent survey conducted in May 2008 by Probe Research Inc., Canadians said they are not choosing bottled water over municipal tap water," said Gail Cosman, president of Nestlé Waters Canada in the release.

"What should be of particular concern to the City of London is that the Probe study also indicated that about 60 per cent of bottled water drinkers said they will revert to less healthy alternatives found in plastic beverage containers if bottled water isn't available."

Instead of a ban on plastic bottled water, Nestlé proposed a pilot recycling project in London that would collect plastic containers in public spaces such as parks, restaurants and city streets.

While water bottles can be recycled, the process consumes a great amount of energy, and many bottles end up being thrown out, says William Rees, sustainability planning professor at the University of British Columbia.

He says some major bottled water producers actually use municipal water. Dasani brand bottled water puts Brampton's municipal water through a filtration system before putting it on store shelves as its own product.

London, which will phase in the ban over the next several months only at buildings with water fountains, is one of the first cities in Canada to ban bottled water. Other cities in Ontario considering restricting the sale of bottled water on school premises include Kitchener, Ottawa and Toronto.

Vancouver has also started looking into how to implement a bottled water ban at its city-owned facilities.

Sales of bottled water in Canada including imported bottled water reached 2.16 billion litres in 2006, up 13 per cent from 1.91 billion litres in 2005, Griswold said, citing statistics from the Beverage Marketing Corp.

With files from the Canadian Press