To: The New York State House, The New York State Senate, and Governor Andrew Cuomo

NYC elected officials: Do not drink bottled water at daily press events

All NYC elected officials and staff should shun the tiny plastic bottles of bottled water offered at daily press events and CARRY their own BPA free REUSABLE WATER BOTTLE. Every single day press conferences occur where NYC elected officials drink the bottled water provided to them by the organizer of the event. Usually, only a minuscule 8 oz. bottle of Whatever Springs Water. This is an UTTER WASTE of time, money, resources and it is setting a poor example to all New Yorkers.

Why is this important?

NYC tap water is world renowned for its taste and quality. Bottled water of any ilk is less tested and it uses up unnecessary resources from oil to make and distribute the plastic bottles to the oil and work needed to dispose of them. Only one in 5 bottles is actually recycled. While the label on bottled water usually has pastoral scenes of nature including streams and forests, as much as 1 in 4 bottles of bottled water is actually just PLAIN OLD TAP WATER. Some filtered and some unfiltered. How would we even know if it was filtered or unfiltered? I just think of the foreign oil needed to make, distribute, and either recycle or send to landfills for a thousand years when I even SEE anyone drink ANY bottled water. I think as NYC local elected officials, all NYC City Councilmembers AND staff should each CARRY their own BPA free water bottles and shun the tiny 8 oz. bottles of Whatever Springs Water that they are offered daily.

10 REASONS to AVOID BOTTLED WATER
1. It is 1000 times more expensive than tap water.
2. It undergoes LESS regulation than TAP WATER. (Tap water IS FAR MORE REGULATED as it undergoes FDA AND EPA standards)
3. Since it is packaged in a PLASTIC or GLASS bottles, I think of the WORK and ENERGY and FOSSIL FUEL required to package and distribute that bottle worldwide.
4. It tastes like PLASTIC. (tap water out performs bottled water on tests after tests, nationwide)
5. Anywhere from 33% - 60% of all bottled water is JUST tap water. (some filtered and some straight from the tap)
6. Fossil fuel is used to make and distribute the finished bottled water.
7. Each year, the amount of oil used required to make the bottles of bottled water, is enough to FUEL 1 million cars.
8. 80% of bottles end up in landfills where they will litter the earth for 1000’s of years.
9. If you choose to recycle the bottle, think of the work, energy, and fossil fuel needed to ready that bottle for recycling. And even then, while those plastic bottles are not yet in landfills, many are DOWNCYCLED, or turned into lesser plastic parts which will eventually end up in a landfill where it will litter the earth for 1000’s of years.
10. I don’t want to appear like an uneducated consumer of foreign fossil fuel products.

I’d rather purchase a reusable BPA free bottle and go exclusively for tap water 100% of the time.