On the streets of New York or Denver or
San Mateo this summer, it seems the telltale cap of a water bottle is
sticking out of every other satchel. Americans are increasingly thirsty
for what is billed as the healthiest, and often most expensive, water
on the grocery shelf. But this country has some of the best public
water supplies in the world. Instead of consuming four billion gallons
of water a year in individual-sized bottles, we need to start thinking
about what all those bottles are doing to the planet’s health.
Here are the hard, dry facts: Yes, drinking water is a good thing, far
better than buying soft drinks, or liquid candy, as nutritionists like
to call it. And almost all municipal water in America is so good that
nobody needs to import a single bottle from Italy or France or the Fiji
Islands. Meanwhile, if you choose to get your recommended eight glasses
a day from bottled water, you could spend up to $1,400 annually. The
same amount of tap water would cost about 49 cents.
Next,
there’s the environment. Water bottles, like other containers,
are made from natural gas and petroleum. The Earth Policy Institute in
Washington has estimated that it takes about 1.5 million barrels of oil
to make the water bottles Americans use each year. That could fuel
100,000 cars a year instead. And, only about 23 percent of those
bottles are recycled, in part because water bottles are often not
included in local redemption plans that accept beer and soda cans. Add
in the substantial amount of fuel used in transporting water, which is
extremely heavy, and the impact on the environment is anything but
refreshing.
Tap water may now be the equal of bottled water,
but that could change. The more the wealthy opt out of drinking tap
water, the less political support there will be for investing in
maintaining America’s public water supply. That would be a
serious loss. Access to cheap, clean water is basic to the
nation’s health.
Some local governments have begun to
fight back. Earlier this summer, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom
prohibited his city’s departments and agencies from buying
bottled water, noting that San Francisco water is “some of the
most pristine on the planet.” Salt Lake City has issued a similar
decree, and New York City recently began an advertising campaign that
touted its water as “clean,” “zero sugar” and
even “stain free.”
The real change, though, will come
when millions of ordinary consumers realize that they can save money,
and save the planet, by turning in their water bottles and turning on
the tap.
In Praise of Tap Water – New York Times
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