[BRIEF NOTE] "I've got my orange crush"

[rfmcdonald]

OrangeCrush1a
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

I grew up drinking bottled pop, bottled by the defunct Seaman's Beverages, for reasons described by the CBC.

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.

A Charlottetown radio station will mark the occasion Saturday with a huge celebration in the city.

Yes, it has ended. At the time, the job issue was key, but the bottle ban was packaged as an environmentally friendly alternative to cans--not a small concern in a province that depends heavily on tourist attracted by the image of a pristine province--despite some concerns about the bottle model's actual environmental and economic viability. Certainly it required a government that was willing to actively intervene against non-refillable drink containers.

That active intervention ended. Last year, the provincial opted to end a long anti-can tradition on the grounds that, in a "province [that] has seen rapid growth in the number of non-carbonated drinks such as water, juices and sports drinks available in cans and plastic bottles in the province[,] the province could no longer prohibit certain beverages from being sold in cans and bottles, while millions of cans and plastic bottles of these other drinks are already being sold." And since bottles are an archaic technology, why produce them at all?

At least the ban was enforced to the end--a can dealer busted in March for trying to break the ban early. That happened on the morning of the 3rd of May. I don't know whether any celebrations actually took off. I can say that, to the best of my knowledge, no more bottles are going to be produced, stores selling out the last of their supplies before the cans come in. The cans will still come in the old Seaman's Beverages flavours, I'm somewhat relieved to find out.

Seaman’s olde fashioned orange, cream soda, lime rickey and ginger ale will still line store shelves after canned pop hits the Island next month, The Pepsi Bottling Group announced Monday.

The Prince Edward Island brand will be packaged in 355-ml cans and 12 packs, and 591-ml and two- litre plastic bottles as soon as the province ditches glass bottles for cans and plastic May 1. The packaging will look very similar to what is produced now, with the addition of a new slogan “Prince Edward Island’s soft drink.”

The pop will no longer be produced on the Island, though. It will be produced at Pepsi’s production facilities in Moncton, N.B.

Moncton. On the mainland.

Economies of scale will tell in the end.