Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Drinks / News Water Log: Metro Kicks the H2O Habit
Posted by Carrington Fox on Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 6:16 AM
Scene intern Angela Suico contributed this post.
In the spirit of recession, Metro has pink-slipped bottled water. The Council passed a resolution earlier this month asking all departments to cease consumption of the beverage except in cases where absolutely necessary.
Restaurants--including ChaChah, tayst and Tin Angel, to name a few--are turning to the tap as well, for reasons related to sustainability as well as cost-cutting. How do people feel about the shift?
Comments (8)
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I'd be curious to see paperwork documenting how many departments actually used single-serve bottled water. Can any public sector manager justify spending spending public money to fill the landfill with plastic bottles, even in flush times? Or is the resolution a "feel good" measure? Anyone have anyexperience with this?
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I am a-ok with it. Bottled water is far overrated. I don't think it's really any cleaner than what comes out of Nashville's taps (usually it's just tap water from some other place with similar water quality), plus it has that plastic taste.
The only way this works is if they cut all bottled or canned beverages. Bottled water is simply the zero calorie alternative in the giant beverage bin, courtesy of whichever soda giant you purchase. So does this mean they're cutting soda machines altogether, or simply removing water from those machines as well as whatever catering offerings they had? (I mean, the landfill isn't affected by the bottle's former contents, the bottle itself is the problem.)
On a practical note, will they have pitchers of water at meetings to go with the sodas and coffee? It's not convenient to run out to the hallway drinking fountain to fill up a glass that doesn't fit, and this is all part of how we got to view a bottle of water as an attractive solution. Their cleanliness as a delivery method is equally unquestioned, but providing pitchers and cups or glasses poses yet another problem. I'm not dissing the idea, I'm just saying, if you want it to have impact, think it all the way through and effect a BIG change.
As for bottled water itself, unless you live near a TVA plant, we all know it's an unnecessary expense and a great cosmic joke on the universe. Filtered tap water, something almost free made more expensive than gasoline, brought to you by yet another major corporation's really clever marketing folks. Our tap water is amazingly clean already, and my Kenmore fridge adds the same extra filtering as Dasani or Aquafina for about nothing, especially when I cast fate to the wind and ignore the red 'change filter' light.
How clean is our water already? In the late 70s a State Department study revealed that on average, a person from a 'third world nation' making the US their home added THIRTY YEARS to their life expectancy. The majority of that was attributed to our water and sewer systems. That's pretty clean.
I completely agree they should. It's horrible how much waste in plastic alone those bottles cause. I immagine that the city employees don't recycle them either. I recently bought several stainless steel water bottles and use them religiously! They're great and the water from them tastes amazing! I saw these for sale recently from Walgreen's for $2.99. I paid more for most of mine, but these are a simple way of keeping that plastic out of landfills!
Keeping the trash out of the landfills is fantastic, but I think that in this case it's a side note.
When the tax money is only trickling in, every little savings helps. Purchasing bottled water costs a heck of a lot more than filling up a pitcher, putting it out with some cups, and washing up afterwards.
Oh, and yeah, from what I've seen bottled water at government meetings, both state and local, is pretty much the norm in Nashville. For a while, Metro Schools were even paying a premium to have bottles with custom labels.
When I was kid (1960s), you drank water from the tap. If you were outside on a hot day, from the water hose. Then, oh, sometime in the late '70s, I guess, the eco-zealots said our drinking water wasn't safe. Beginning in California and then spreading throughout the rest of the land, bottled water was everywhere. The ecos were thrilled because many made money off the rage.
Now the ecos are preaching the evils of bottled water. I don't know, what's an appropriate closing here: What goes around comes around?
bottles from bottled water only accounts for .3 % of the total waste in the landfills.
If you're thinking green make a bigger impact by switching from plastic bags to non-woven.
bottles are recyclable and recycled plastic is very useful, all those carpets and micro fleece materials your using, may have been from a bottle you used.
encourage everyone you see to please recycle :) www.iwantmyh2o.com
