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July 20, 2007
Editorial
Time to turn on the tap
AMERICA'S love affair with water - the bottled variety - is causing one heckuva disposal problem.
For starters, 47 million gallons of oil are used each year to produce the clear plastic bottles from which Americans drink, the environmental group Food and Water Watch says.
Consumers, who probably have several reusable water bottles stashed away in a cabinet, could be filling those hard containers with tap water, which the public already pays to treat and fluoridate and which government standards take pains to safeguard.
But we don't.
In 2005, Americans drank 37 billion bottles of water. Bottled-water chic accounts for many of the 68 billion beverage bottles and cans that the Container Recycling Institute says have been "landfilled, littered, and incinerated" in the United States so far this year. It's not enough for city governments and high-end restaurants to swear off the purchase of bottled water.
This response must begin at home. Until more than 11 states have bottle recycling or deposit laws, the fossil-fueled empties will keep piling up.
It's time for America to turn on the tap and drink from the spring in which we invest so much, lest the land be trampled by that bottled "mountain" water's heavy carbon-footprint.
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070720/OPINION02/707200305
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