andydidyk.com

Anyone who knows me knows that I am almost always drinking water from a plastic Nalgene bottle. It’s good to stay hydrated at work, and in my opinion it’s really good to do so from a reusable container.

I read something on CNN.com this weekend that really excites me: the mayor of San Francisco has signed an executive order banning city deparments from buying bottled water. The mayor cited the overall financial costs and the subsequent environmental impact as major reasons for the ban…I think this is really a great initiative and should be applauded. In fact, in America and other developed countries, I hope that bottled water will one day go the route that smoking is today – banned in most places.

Does that seem a little extreme? Americans already have some of the cleanest water in the world. In fact, the water discharged from waste water treatment plants must meet stricter guidelines for potability than municipal water supplies in the developing world. I’ve read in several places (but can’t find them currently to cite them) that if the world spent on international aide what it spent on bottled water each year that we would be able to provide clean drinking water to everyone on the planet.

And then there’s the environmental impact. Just take me for example. I’ve been using the same bottle for the past 4+ years, and it’s still going strong. Let’s say I had instead used a throw-away bottle every day for the past 4 years. That would mean that I would have placed over 1,400 bottles of plastic into the landfill by myself! Americans buy enough bottled water in a year to give an 8-ounce serving to every man, woman, and child in the country. But that’s really nothing compared to all of the other costs. Check out this Wikipedia article (it’s properly cited and footnoted) for more information…it’ll blow your mind.

I’m glad that Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco is taking such a bold step forward. I hope other towns will see the cost benefits and follow suit.