An initiative in Nova Scotia, Canada, aims to reduce the amount of plastic we use at the pump by funding a windshield wiper fluid dispenser system that will remove the need for plastic jugs.
The initiative recently gained attention in the subreddit r/ZeroWaste, where one user shared an image of the new dispensers at a gas station in the city of Halifax.
The bright green dispenser works just like a regular gas pump and enables you to fill your wiper fluid reservoir directly. This initiative is a partnership between nonprofit organization Divert NS and manufacturer EcoTank Canada that aims to eliminate plastic jugs entirely. If used to its full potential, this could reduce over 1.2 million jugs that are used in the province alone every year.
These plastic jugs are often contaminated with methanol that is used in the wiper fluid, making them difficult to clean and recycle. As a result, millions of these jugs end up in landfills every year. Landfills store up to 42% of plastic waste globally and are a big source of microplastics that are contaminating our environment. Microplastics are emerging as a serious threat and have been found everywhere, from remote locations to inside the food we eat and even in our brains.
Making small changes like these can have a huge impact on the environment. For example, plastic bag bans in some U.S. states have already saved billions of plastic bags. Adopting small changes, such as reusable shopping bags, results in less waste and less litter. It also helps save billions of dollars in money allocated to clean up plastic waste.
EcoTank windshield wiper fluid dispensers have also popped up in Europe and the U.S. with the hope of reducing plastic waste everywhere.
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"Would be nice if we could make this more mainstream," one user observed.
Others noted that it was more expensive than the jugs, but they would still probably use it for convenience. "It's not as if an extra couple bucks once or twice a year is the end of the world," they said.
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