Yes, I can give you several.
We were talking earlier about reduction at the source. PFAS are one example. There should not be any more of them in our products, like Teflon-coated frying pans, raincoats, and so on.
We can also talk about conserving water. In Toronto, my Ontario colleagues have been able to do some very good things to reduce water consumption. A lot of work as been done on concentrations of some products coming from industry in water. This is a good thing, but as long as there are large discharges, it will have huge consequences, even if the concentrations are small. So we have to work to reduce these discharges.
There is another example that might affect the average person. During the pandemic, people used a lot of those disposable wipes to disinfect everything. People threw them in toilets, and that caused huge problems. It costs Canadian municipalities $250 million per year, because these wipes are in our sewer systems and clog up the pumping stations. Then they are found in our wastewater treatment plants, like the Jean-R. Marcotte wastewater treatment plant in Montreal. So they have to be taken out for processing, when people could simply put them in the garbage to start with so they could be easily dealt with after that. This example shows that we are able to do good things at the source.
Municipalities have also installed water recirculation systems in water-cooled air conditioning systems in hospitals. Hospitals' water consumption has been reduced by 90%.
Men will also remember those urinals in elementary schools with their automatic flushing systems. Every ten minutes, fresh potable water flowed into the urinals, and that continued even when there was a water shortage, and in the summer, in all our schools. They also kept working at night, when they were not being used. There have been innovations in that regard too.
These are all examples of practices that work. However, as you said, it takes funding to implement them widely.
Thank you.