San Francisco City officials may enact a new ordinance against plastic bottle dependence. The proposed ordinance would require any new or renovated building to install bottle-filling tap stations. In the place of traditional drinking fountains, these filling stations would dispense cold water from a vertical jet. People would no longer have to worry about purchasing a plastic bottle (problematic for the wallet and the environment) and could instead fill up reusable bottles.
Indeed, Board of Supervisors President David Chiu is quoted by the Associate Press as stating, 'This is the appropriate next step to make it easier for San Franciscans to get out of the bad habit of using environmentally wasteful plastic water bottles and into the good habit of using reusable water containers'.
Such stations already exist at the San Francisco International Airport and some city schools and parks. Elsewhere, at Pennsylvania State University, these stations have proved highly successful; AP reports that the University officials estimate the most popular stations to replace 35,000 plastic bottles per month!
We await the results of the proposed ordinance and hope that the fight against plastic bottle pollution continues in San Fran. In the mean time, we encourage use of reusable bottles, particularly our Aqua Gear filtration bottles!
Reference: Huffington Post Article (Quoting the Associated Press)