While Montreal’s numerous festivals provide ample opportunity for fun during the summer, they can also have a negative impact on the environment. A Montreal marine biologist is behind a new project aimed at reducing the amount of plastic in the oceans.

Rachel Labbe-Bellas has teamed up with Evenko to bring The Green Stop, an environmentally-friendly water refill stations, to this year’s Osheaga.

“The idea is to reduce all single-use plastics in outdoor events. We’re starting with a basic water-refill station. It’s essentially a redesigned water fountain,” she said. “No one has thought about this because it’s something super easy and we’ve chosen convenience and have been given free water bottles a lot of the time at a lot of events.”

Labbe-Bellas, an alumnus of McGill, said she the danger of plastics is seen throughout the natural world.

“It goes in our bodies. A lot of expeditions I’ve been on talked about the toxins in our bodies. We’re even breathing it in,” she said. “There’s micro-fibers in our air, there’s micro-fibers in our water. Recycling is a failed system and we need to think about reduction and reuse first.”

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