“San Francisco Bans Bottled Water for City Workers.” That was the title of a news brief I read in which San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom issued an “executive order banning city departments from buying bottled water, even for water coolers. The ban goes into effect July 1, and will extend to water coolers by Dec. 1. The move was billed as a way to help stem global warming and save taxpayer money. In a press release announcing the decision, the mayor cited the environmental impact of making, transporting and disposing of the bottles and that more than a billion of them end up in the state’s landfills each year.”
I read this news brief and it reminded me of my blog entry (Plastics 1 / Humanity 0) where, in the Comment’s section, the suggestion was made that bottled water is as bad for our environment as plastic bags are. I had never even considered that before and as a bottled water consumer since I was in diapers in the 70s, I wanted to learn more.
It seems that a quick Google search will return thousands of articles discussing the petroleum usage associated with the manufacturing, transportation, distribution, and disposal of water bottles. This has been something that I have given very little thought to and have taken for granted…I’ve always considered these bottles to be an innocuous and convenient part of my life: I was wrong. I have been walking around with my brain turned off to this.
With more and more city and local municipalities taking measures to curb the use of bottled water, clearly the environmental impact of this specific refuse warrants action and the case for reducing the consumer-nonchalance toward plastic bottles seems to hold water.
—
Estimates suggest that the manufacturing and transportation per each single bottle of water requires the use of:
- 6-7x the amount of water as is in the bottle;
- 1.0 liter of fossil fuels;
- 1.2 pounds of greenhouse gasses released into our atmosphere.
With 12-18 bottles per case, you do the math.
11 responses so far ↓
Will // June 23, 2007 at 8:00 pm
A way for the city to save the taxpayer dollar, but they will turn around and waste that dollar in some other area.. Put some of the homeless out there going through the trash and save from dumping it in a landfill. A trash to energy plant works fine. Tell the EPA to let companies get into recylcing certain items rather than to have it dumped into a site and buried in cement. That being car batteries after the lead is removed. The housings could be remolded for other car batteries. We are a wasteful nation.
nyscof // June 24, 2007 at 7:07 am
This is good. Now the government officials and agencies who legislate fluoride into the water supply will be forced to drink it themselves.
Fluoride is added to San Francisco’s water supply, not to purify it, but to prevent tooth decay in tap water drinkers. Modern science shows it is ineffective, harmful to health and a waste of tax dollars.
Fluorie chemicals are silicofluorides – waste products of the phosphate fertilizer industry. They are dumped unpurified into the water supply. They are allowed to have trace amounts of lead, arsenic, mercury and other contaminnts.
Studies link silicofluorides to children’s higher blood lead levels which, in turn, are linked to higher rates of tooth decay.
The statistics prove that tooth decay is on the rise along with fluoride over dose symptoms – dental fluorosis
So drink up San Francisco and make sure your kids do to. If you are buying bottled water at home to protect your family, you should be protecting all San Franciscans by ending water fluoridation.
WILLIAM E BIDDLE // June 24, 2007 at 7:34 am
WHAT WOULD YOU EXPECT FROM SAN FRANCISCO? TOWN FULL OF WEIRDO’S AND MISFITS. NEXT THE MAYOR WILL PROBLABLY ORDER EVERYONE TO DIG AND HOLE AND SHIT IN IT SO AS TO SAVE MOENY AT THE SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT.
Frank // June 24, 2007 at 8:36 am
The High Priests of Political Correctness strike again. Apparently someone failed to pay the correct bribes, uh, or, purchase carbon credits. Interesting articles on global warming, too..turns out most of the stations measuring ground temperature are improperly installed and maintained, creating false and inflated readings. Global warming may, in fact, be a myth.
swedelar // June 24, 2007 at 10:20 am
Makes good sense. The plastic bottles use oil and excess water in their manufacture, and they also leak dioxins into the bottled water they contain, let alone the cost of getting rid of them and impact to the environment. With today’s filtering technologies, there’s no reason to avoid tap water. Most people don’t drink bottled water because of the worry of flouride or minerals anyway, but just because it’s the yuppie thing to do.
Gabrielle // June 24, 2007 at 10:44 am
I believe that throw away bottles are not a good choice for conservation. Dealing with the waste steam created by throw away bottles are tough for all of us.
People have a choice to use refillable water bottles that can be washed and used again. Most people I speak to do not trust municipal water supplies for drinking water. They feel that municipal systems do not provide clean water and it often tastes chlorine like and smells funny. Municipal water suppliers could do a better job of marketing their product.
However, this is the point in my thinking that is conflicted. How much water would you use to wash your reusable bottle?
JUHN HINES // June 24, 2007 at 12:18 pm
THE SF IDIOT, FLUORIDE IS MORE TOXIC THAN LEAD. BREAST FEEDING YOU ARE NOT TO USE ANYTHING WITH FLUORIDE IN IT. MESSES WITH THYROID,ENDOCRINE,IQ,NEUROTOXIC AND HIP FRACTURES. I AM GETTING THE PICTURE THAT “ALL” ADDTIVIES,COLORING ETC ARE TOXIC WASTE AND THEY MAKE MONEY OR SAVE BY PUTTING IT IN OUR FOODS,DRINKS,SHAMPOO ETC.
IF DRUG COMPANIES PROMOTE IT, GOVENMENT PROMOTE IT
AND I CRAVE IT
I STAY AWAY FROM IT………..
tovorinok // July 5, 2007 at 3:34 am
Hello
Great book. I just want to say what a fantastic thing you are doing! Good luck!
Bye
Gina // July 8, 2007 at 12:09 pm
The greatest problem here in California, i that the water supply is deadly. The chemicals and taste of the water make it impossible to drink. Therefore, bottled water ist he only solution for most of us. I do reuse the bottles until they get to a certain point, then I have to throw them away. However, you can rest assured that in Southern California, especially the school district, we don’t even recycle. As a teacher, most of my fellow teachers have discussed how many water bottles we see each day, but there is no reinforcement to recycle them. The schools do not supply recycling bins, nor do they care to. Because it is so hot here, we have vending machines on campus, but the students and teachers jsut toss the bottles int he nearest garbage can because there are no receptacles provided.
The city and the state could clean up on recycling if they provided receptacles. That would save the tax payers money and improve the school money situation (as well as clean up our environment.) Unfortunately, the lack of concern comes from the top down, meaning our governor. How many bottles does he recycle? How far is he willing to go to change things and insure for a future for this state? Are you there Mr. Schwartzenegger, Mr. Villaragosa? Admiral Brewer? Make some changes and save the world! Please!
Jamie // July 10, 2007 at 12:16 pm
I think it is a good idea. I stopped buying bottled water for this same reason last year. I always recycled the bottles, but one day started thinking about the damage that manufacturing and distributing them does to our environment.
No all of our water is California is bad. My fiance works on ground water cleanup and certain areas do have save drinking waters. If not, many of the filters out there do a sufficient job of making it safe.
I certainly don’t understand why they still put flouride in drinking water. Apparently no one has made a big enough stink about it.
Unfortunately, as someone said earlier, we do consume and waste a lot. And, unfortunately, our environment is suffering for it. What we need is for conservation to become the “in” thing. It seems that with our mentality, the only thing that works is peer pressure. Next time you see someone throw away something that can be recycled, sneer.
P.S. Loon that I am, I am considering taking tupperware with me next time I go to a restaurant where I know I’ll have leftovers. People may think I am nuts, but I don’t want to waste the food, and why not do that little bit to conserve paper or whatever material they use to put the leftovers in???
Why I'm a Live Earth Skeptic // September 11, 2007 at 7:13 am
[...] as a local partner in South Africa). There have been many news stories recently about the negative environmental impact of bottled water; both these companies sell this product as well as their less healthy [...]