New York City Offices to Ban Bottled Water

New York City will save two million dollars if an upcoming bill succeeds in banning the municipal government from buying bottled water for its office buildings, say the bill's proponents, City Councilmen Eric Gioia and Simcha Felder. Eliminating the bottles from the city's waste stream of 12,000 tons daily will yield savings both in dollars and in the volume that ends up in a landfill. While plastic bottles are recyclable, 60 million water bottles end up in landfills or incinerators every single day out of the more than 70 million that are on average consumed nationwide.

New York has been stepping up its recycling efforts, and has seen strong results from a pilot program of recycling bins in public parks, but as with residential curbside recycling, the contamination rate for plastic, glass and metals is consistently higher than that for paper
(download report here).

If the ban, which will be introduced at the next city council meeting, is approved, offices can install water coolers that connect directly to a pipe and filter tap water internally. In a city with one of the cleanest drinking water supplies in the world, and which is one of just a handful of large cities with the EPA's approval to leave its tap water unfiltered, the increase in bottled water sales is not the result of necessary health precautions. It is, at least in part, the result of aggressive marketing schemes by bottled water companies that in other cities have led to legislative disputes. In October, Nestle threatened to sue Florida's Miami-Dade county if it did not pull a radio ad promoting tap water as cheaper and safer than bottled water, and environmental groups in Canada have filed a complaint that Nestle made false claims in advertising, including the statement in a full-page newspaper ad that "Nestle Pure Life is a Healthy, Eco-Friendly Choice."

Meanwhile, a new company bottling New York City tap water calls itself environmentally superior to bottles shipped from, say, Fiji. In terms of sustainability, the fewer food miles, the better; but the only environmentally sensible solution to bottled water is to not drink it. Bottled water has been found to contain toxins leeched from the bottles themselves, and the production of plastic is a major source of the world's toxins that have left one in five people worldwide without access to safe drinking water.

Plastic is difficult to dispose of -- it takes hundreds of years to decompose in a landfill, if it ever does, which as with other materials is unlikely due to the lack of oxygen in such compressed spaces. If the recycling rate were to increase, the melting of recycled plastic consumes energy and releases toxins. It also must be blended with virgin plastic in order to create a viable material, which is ultimately used for products such as plastic lumber, while bottles for water (and other food and beverage items) are made from new, unused plastic.

Comments

[nyscof]

The sad reality is that, in this economy, more people can't afford bottled water. The least healthy Americans are usually the lowest incomed and will be exposed to toxins in the tap water supply such as fluoride which is adversely affect their health even more. See FluorideAction.Net/health.

The recent report of a Florida Mom who caused her child's near-death experience when she watered down formula to make it stretch, shows that parents as well as the media doesn't know that infant formula must NOT be mixed with fluoridated water and that infants fluoride intake shouldn't exceed an extremely low 0.01 mg of fluoride a day, according to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Dental Association.

Some parents add tap water to milk and other liquid beverages to make it stretch between pay-checks or food stamps.

Excess fluoride risks dental fluorosis - yellow discolored teeth which is the body's outward warning that too much fluoride was ingested. Unseen is the damage fluoride ingestion causes to bones, thyroid and kidney function. Also, over 20 studies done in other countries link low level fluoride ingestion to lowered IQ
Since fluoride is neither a nutrient nor required for healthy teeth, there is no harm from avoiding it.

Fluoride should be removed from all water supplies immediately and dispensed based on need not thirst

Take action to stop fluoridation here: http://congress.fluorideaction.net

Fluoridation 101
http://www.orgsites.com/ny/nyscof

[denlong]

So Why are Coke and Pepsi allowed to use plastic bottles?

Yeah; you are right that RO water in a bottle is no cleaner than RO tap-water at the filter sight, but run that clean water 10 miles through a 100 year old pipe to your house!

"Plastic is difficult to dispose of " BULL SH_T!

Recycling is very easy! there is a recycling bin100' from my front door. The fact that Americans are too lazy to recycle doesn't mean that it is difficult. Give me a break!

[TimothyJF]

Thanks for the good article that calls attention to this issue. The comment about recycling plastic is no doubt correct. However, reports vary, but between 73 and 87% of water-type bottles are never recycled.

Boil water will not remove all contaminants and chemicals.

There is more info on the topic on our website www.friendsofwater.com; see Bottled Water.
Also be aware that there is an ever-growing number of scientific and medical research studies that link health issues with both chlorine and fluoride. Drinking tap water does make the most sense, but drinking those probably doesn't. People should consider a good water filter at the tap. WIth a GOOD filter you'll have healthy and tasty water at a fraction of the cost of bottled water.
We suggest people do some current research before falling back on the old red herring that "It's just kooks who think fluoride in the water isn't a good thing."

[bobbrouse]

hi
im a reporter at water.ca and read this with interest. many people in north america cannot afford to pay the water bill. some places actually have no water even if you have the money. its truly one of the most fascinating marketing moves in the history of commerce.convincing people that the bottled water is cleaner than city(most of the time it actually isnt) and that the plastic bottle use is offset by recycling, different plastics and so on. we have to stand up and be counted, the way to do it is simple. dont buy it,these companies will go on to fresh air in a bag or something. it is with sadness that the governments have to go so far as banning it, just stop buying it. in so far as water quality goes there are at least 1700 boil water advisories in Canada with the United States having no national map like ours on water.ca its hard to know, but i suspect its much higher. in order to continue having clean drinking water there has to be a move to stop flushing meds into water sytem, stop corporate dumping, check ships for invasive species, recycle systems that actually work, groundwater studies and education on how much water we dont have. water meters in every hosue ,every factory and the real cost of water will become apparent.(ask Atlanta) good luck with your economic recovery.
bob brouse water.ca

[ERoyte]

Hi Rachel: Did something get dropped from this sentence? "the production of plastic is a major source of the world's toxins that have left one in five people worldwide without access to safe drinking water." I'm not grokking the connection between toxins and unavailable water. Explain? Thanks.

[Russycle]

If your water has toxins in it, it's not safe to drink. And folks who make less than a dollar a day don't have the option of buying safe water, or driving the car they don't have to some place where the water isn't contaminated.

[BritishRecycledPlastic]

Hi Rachel,

With reference to your comments about recycled plastic, I am surprised that you say "It also must be blended with virgin plastic in order to create a viable material, which is ultimately used for products such as plastic lumber..."

Unfortunately, that is not technically correct.

Whilst I cannot comment on the processes used in the US, here we use 99% raw mixed plastic waste (mainly HDPE) combined with 1% masterbatch, also made from completely recycled plastic, to produce our plastic lumber.

For info see http://www.britishrecycledproducts.co.uk/?FAQs:Furniture_and_plastic_lumber:What_goes_into_the_plastic_furniture_and_lumber%3F

We also source all raw material from within 60 miles of the factory and use electricity from a hydroelectic company, so keeping our carbon footprint very low.

I find it difficult to believe that US companies do not follow similar practices.