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# Santa Monica considers banning employee bottled water use to cut waste and emissions
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/pollution-concerns-lead-officials-to-consider-ban-city-hall-may-end-practice-of-supplying-bottled-water-to-its-many-departments/
- Published: 2007-08-13T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T02:34:12.000Z
- Author: Kevin Herrera
- Tags: Government & Politics, Santa Monica, #archive-import

CITY HALL Concerned over the waste piling up in municipal landfills and the greenhouse gases emitted by the production and transportation of plastic bottles city officials are considering following in the footsteps of San Francisco and ban or extremely limit the use of bottled water by employees.

The idea is one of several initiatives City Hall is contemplating along with seven other cities across the state who are trying to be more environmentally conscious, said Craig Perkins, director of environmental and public works for City Hall.

“The whole point was for these cities, who are more progressive on sustainability issues, to take collective action to raise visibility and public education and awareness about some of the fairly simple, straight forward approaches municipal governments can take to be more sustainable in their operations,” Perkins said.

Some of the other cities participating in the discussion are Sacramento, Berkeley, Santa Barbara and San Francisco.

So far City Hall has changed the way it uses paper, purchasing only 100 percent post-consumer copy paper, Perkins said. Bottled water could be next along with other changes to the way City Hall manages its operations.

“We are asking ourselves questions about how we could make changes to our every day processes without diminishing the quality of service,” Perkins said.

Concerned about the production of plastic bottles and how they are impacting the environment, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in June stopped city departments from buying bottled water. In July, he led the U.S. Conference of Mayors in a resolution praising tap water and called for a study on the environmental impact of bottled water.

That, followed by PepsiCo. Inc.’s admission that its top selling water brand, Aquafina, was actually tap water instead of coming from natural springs, has created somewhat of a bottled water backlash across the country.

More consumers are turning to tap or are purchasing their own bottles and refilling them as they go about their day, and restaurants are starting to offer their customers filtered water over more expensive Avian, or Fiji water, which can sell for as much as $5 a bottle in some spots.

“I knew that most bottled water wasn’t really coming form where they said it was, but It’s become a habit to just pick one up and go,” said Jorge Moreno, who was walking out of a local convenience store with a bottle of Dasani, Coca Cola’s brand of bottled water. “I’m trying to make an effort to recycle more or re-use the same bottle all day. It’s going to take a while, but I think I can do it.”

In response to an increase in consumers like Moreno, an association of water bottlers is defending their reputation in full-page ads in the New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle that fend of criticism and recast the debate.

“If the debate is about the impact of plastic packaging on the environment, a narrow focus on bottled water spotlights only a small portion of the packaged beverage category and an even smaller sliver of the universe of packaged products,” said Joseph K. Doss, president and CEO of the International Bottled Water Association.

“Any actions that discourage the use of this healthy beverage choice are not in the public interest,” Doss said. “When it comes to bottled water or tap water, most people drink both, depending on the circumstances.”

Bottled water is big business. As more consumers swear off the calories in sugary drinks, bottled water sales have jumped considerably from 18.8 gallons a year per person in 2001 to 28.3 gallons per person annually five years later, according to the Beverage Marketing Corporation. The consumption of fortified water such as Gatorade and Vitamin Water has also jumped considerably.

With that increase in consumption comes an increase in the release of heat-trapping emissions created by the production of plastic bottles. Making water bottles for the U.S. requires 1.5 million barrels of oil every year, or enough to fuel 100,000 cars, according to the Earth Policy Institute.

Doss said bottled water is being unfairly targeted and believes more focus should be placed on recycling rather than the manufacturers.

“Any efforts to reduce the resources necessary to produce and distribute packaged goods and increase recycling rates must focus on all packaging,” Doss said. “Any other approach misses a real opportunity to arrive at a comprehensive solution to protecting and sustaining the environment.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 13, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/081307.pdf?ref=smdp.com)