The NY Times reports that New York Governor David A. Paterson signed an executive order on Tuesday calling on state agencies to phase out the use and purchase of bottled water in all government workplaces. Citing both economic and environmental reasons, the move seeks to gradually replace both single use bottles and water coolers in favor of tap water fountains and dispensers, setting a strong precedent for local government, businesses and residents to follow suit.
A press release from the governor’s office explains:
Bottled water is wasteful and requires large amounts of energy to bottle and transport. Over 450 million gallons of oil are used to transport water from bottling plants to stores. In the United States, plastic water bottle manufacturing uses 17 million barrels of oil, producing over 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide pollution. Eighty percent of these bottles, which are equal to four billion pounds, end up in garbage incinerators or landfills.
New York has an abundance of tap water for consumption. Three out of four people drink bottled water on a regular basis even though many bottled water products are often just filtered tap water. In addition, for each gallon of water that goes into a plastic bottle, two gallons of water are used to make the plastic bottles and to filter the water.
By Scott Lachut
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