Creative Loafing - Enviro-cities

Get back to the tap

By Karen Shugart

In May, Takoma Park joined legions of cities that have cut single-serve bottled water from their budgets. The move put the Washington, D.C., suburb among at least 60 cities, large and small, that have scaled back on bottled-water usage, including Seattle, Los Angeles, Austin, and Fayetteville, Ark. San Francisco was the first, said Sara Joseph of Corporate Accountability International's Think Outside the Bottle campaign, which has lobbied to reduce their use.

The environmental impact is far from minimal, according to a U.S. Conference of Mayors resolution. U.S. consumers spend more than $11 billion a year on bottled water, which travels many miles from its source, resulting in use of massive amounts of fossil fuel use and the release of carbon dioxide and other pollutants. Plastic bottles produced for water require 1.5 million barrels of oil each year, enough to generate electricity for 250,000 homes. What's more, the mayors' organization found that local governments were paying an estimated $70 million to clean up waste from the bottles -- money that could be used investing in public water systems.

In June, the mayors' conference passed a resolution encouraging cities to phase out government use of bottled water. The resolution passed overwhelmingly, with signatures of more than 1,100 mayors.

Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, however, introduced a rival resolution that The New York Times reported, "emphasized maintaining the nation's water infrastructure and the importance of recycling."

"It's no secret that Charlotte has a major bottling plant," Deborah Lapidus, a national organizer with the Think Outside the Bottle campaign, told CL.

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