Cooling off with bottled water could soon cost you more within the Chicago city limits if one alderman has his way.
As CBS 2’s Kristyn Hartman reports, Ald. George Cardenas (12th) wants to slap a tax of up to 25 cents on the cost of every bottle to help close a $217 million budget gap.
“People enjoy jogging or driving with a bottle of water. There’s a cost associated with this behavior. You have to pay for it,” said Cardenas, one of Mayor Richard M. Daley’s staunchest City Council supporters.
He’s right, of course. Plastic is disgusting and kills thousands upon thousands of sea creatures constantly. But here in the UK there is a sort of bottle for bottled water which is made of biodegradable corn. Obviously the way to go.
Plastic bottles for water can be recycled and in fact, our city collects these to send to a recycling center. We reuse ours until we accidentally step on them, then they go in the recycle bin. Not a valid argument for adding tax in addition to the sales tax already collected.
Actually, it’s a pretty stupid measure. People are exercising, and thus practicing good health measures. Portable water bottles helps keep them hydrated. so it benefits society in the long “run”.
Jim,
you don’t seem to answer my point …
Next, they’ll want to tax the air we breathe.
John, it seems the good alderman is not so concerned with the trash problem, but with the reduction in money flowing into “his” water system, which he blames on the purveyors of bottled water. Of course, less money coming in means less money he can shuffle around to projects that add little value to the real economy, and, therefore, less personal power for himself. And how dare the little people buy from Big Water and not from Big Brother anyway!, one can almost hear this man ranting when the microphones are switched off.
To everybody drinking bottled water:
Please, keep it up! It’s tasty, convenient and really good for you! Forget about those strange sensations in your molars, forget about that little pain you’re getting when the water’s too cold. Don’t believe that scientific claptrap about fluoridation being good for you. Utter nonsense!
Signed,
The American Dental Association
Oldies time — last week was Dylan, this week the Beatles!
[i]if you drive a car – I’ll tax the street;
if you try to sit – I’ll tax your seat;
if you get too cold – I’ll tax the heat;
if you take a walk – I’ll tax your feet. [/i]
Just so people know.
Most bottled water is no safer than the tap water you drink. There is no empirical evidence to support the notion that it is.
Tap water is regulated by the FDA and there are standards in place. In fact you can call you local water company and ask for the latest test results. Bottled water, if it is transported across state lines for sale, is not regulated at all. In fact a few studies have shown that much of the bottled water in brands like aquafina and dasani are in fact tap water.
The cost per gallon of three kinds of water: Tap, Filtered and bottle:
Tap $.0015/ gallon
Filtered: $.13/ gallon
Bottled $1.27/gallon
Tap water is safe and can be made better with inexpensive carbon filters at home for a fraction of the cost of bottled.
I say Tax away. I’ll drink the tap water.
I don’t drink bottled water; but #1, I am curious about which ocean the people in Chicago are throwing thier empties into.
Wow, plainparson, so what “vice” do you have that we can “tax away” on? Just because you don’t partake of bottled water, you don’t mind others being taxed – I know I’m probably taking your comment too seriously, but it’s this attitude that leds to constant taxation to very little purpose.
Is there a precedent for a municipality taxing citizens on any other unconsumed resource (except the public schools)?
#4, there’s a classic episode of Little Nemo in Slumberland that addresses that very thing. Nothing new, alas!
parson,
You are right (in fact, one of my favorite exposes was by Penn and Teller on their Showtime program B*LLS**T, where they filled various shaped bottles with computer generated labels filled with tap water and asked patrons at an upscale restraunt which they preferred — the expresssions were priceless “I can taste the glacier!” and even more so when revealed it came from the hose out back!), but that is NOT the point.
Just because a city is hurting financially is not a reason to tax an item seemingly at random. Frankly, this is just plain silly.
(by the way, some friends came down to Florida to visit us from Chicago, and when they tasted the water, said, “This tastes like lake water!” which it was! They then asked for bottled water. So, even Chicagoans will drink bottled water over city processed lake water.)
John S., what point didn’t I answer? bottles are recycled here in the US, people re-use the bottles, the tax is silly. Seems like I hit on all points. Besides, I was primarily responding to the news story, not just to you.
Here’s a brand new program for folks to filter their own water and be conservative, http://www.filterforgood.com/ Check it out.
Mike #6, I normally don’t drink bottled water in the States, but I just got back from Mexico; there, I drink bottled water period; are you saying that the stuff is unhealthy? By it’s “lack of effect” on me, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t come from the hose. Filters DON’T work, folks, not against that water anyway (personal experience… don’t ask).
And don’t I remember reading not too long ago that evironmentalists were preaching against bottled water? Something about the money spent on it should instead be spent on MDGs or similar and that drinking it is sinful??
In faith, Dave
Viva Texas
lbaryjam,
Just because an item is recycled doesn’t mean the envirnmental impact is lessened. I think the better option is to recgonize that the over use of plastic is an issue. One could secure a sturdier bottle that could be used for most of your life time and filter the tap water yourself for much less money and a much less impact on the environment. Like at the site at filter for good. Or I suppose you could just drink tap water.
Recycling is great but Re-use is even better. If Recycling just causes us to produce more waste, then the point is missed.
dpierce,
Mexico doesn’t regulate thier tap water like we do here. However, most mexican’s buy 5 gallon bottles of water, make a deposit on the bottle, and return the bottle to be refilled. Or use the correct filtering sytem to make thier water clean. They don’t waste as much potable water as we do here- watering lawns and washing cars!
All true, but it’s hard to carry a 5 gallon bottle with you when you’re touristing ^_^. SOME places treat their water well, but even they aren’t consistent. Most tourist restaurants are OK. And, like I said above… don’t depend on filtered water there. Drink the bottled stuff. If you don’t, most pharmacias can help you but it ain’t fun!
It would be nice to be able to do without so much plastic but, when you consider how much of your standard of living depends on plastic (directly or indirectly, visibly or invisibly), any changes should be made very carefully.
In faith, Dave
Viva Texas
Plainsparson, my city water has little white flecks floating in it and my water bill has a warning about the barium content. I drink bottled water. If you come visiting, which would you like?
Sherri, will one of those filters get rid of the dissolved barium?
In faith, Dave
Viva Texas
Hmmm…I will buy bottled water for convenience when I stop at a gas station (one needs a lot of water in this Texas heat), but when I finish with it, I save the bottle and refill it from the tap, then use it when I go excercise. North Dallas tap water is great, I can’t taste a difference.
As for filtering water, I am not sure what exactly is filtered out, but I can say from experience that a Brita gets rid of the taste and smell of chlorine. In my mother’s town, the city water dept. uses waaay too much chlorine. So much in fact that I gag when I smell it straight from the tap, let alone taste it. The town even recommends boiling one’s water before drinking it to reduce the chlorine content. However, run it through the filter and it’s fine (and tasteless).
Just an FYI, Dasani uses more than just tap water, they also add minerals and salt. Check the ingredient list.
Dave, I don’t know. They haven’t been recommended by the utility company. Would the filter help the taste??
if you want to know what kind of filtration/ home treatment you might need you can go to the NSF website at nsf.org.
They have lots of info about various products and what you need to filter/ treatment.
Carbon filters will help with the taste for sure. The Baruim is harder to filter. Carbon Filters work because many things will bind to carbon and so dripping water through carbon causes a lot of the bad stuff out. However, some chemicals- like barium won’t bind to carbon. A water softner will take barium out. NSF has standards and can tell you what you need.
Sherri- what community do you live in? You can get a report from your water company to find out what is in your water.
Guys, a few quick notes about bottled water:
Most companies who bottle water are poorly regulated, i.e. stuff tends to get in there that you don’t want (like stray sodium and detritus from the pipes.) Having said that, over 90% of all bottled water sold in the U.S. is filtered tap water, not “spring water” although those claims can be a bit muddy (:)
Here in glorious Baton Rouge, La., we have been blessed by a deep aquifer (below 1500 feet) that has water coming out of it so clean that it gets passed through one filter, fluoridated (I think) and then sent on along. It is soft and wonderful, although newbies tell me it tastes/smells of sulfur. I can’t tell anymore. No bottled water company can sell you better water, but the Coca Cola bottler in town makes Dasani out of it.
On bottled water, I read an article the other day that some chemist had determined that if you left on in your car half full of water, some chemicals were released by the bottles when the temp got above a certain point and made their way into the water. These chemicals were not good ones (benzene comes to mind).
My thank you note from the ADA above was a poor joke contrived to get the point across that none of the bottled water companies that I am aware of are putting fluoride into the water, whereas many cities do still fluoridate their water and their are measured increases in dental health in the cities that do.
KTF…mrb
Nah, that article about the bottles in the car releasing chemicals was proven wrong.
check out [url=http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/petbottles.asp]Snopes[/url] and [url=http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/medical/a/bottled-water.htm]Urban Legends[/url] for the full scoop.
[blockquote]Description: Email rumor
Circulating since: April 2007 (this version)
[b]Status: False[/b]
Summary: Forwarded message warns women not to drink bottled water that has been left in a car for any length of time because. supposedly, the heat releases cancer-causing toxins which ‘leak’ from the plastic into the water.
Comments: False. In the United States, plastic water bottles are regulated by the FDA as “food contact substances” and held to the same safety standards as food additives. This means, among other things, that the FDA has reviewed test data on the safety of the plastics used in water bottles — including the potential for hazardous chemicals leaching or “migrating” from the plastic into the water — and established that they pose no significant risk to human health. The water itself is also tested and must meet basic quality standards similar to those set by the Environmental Protection Agency for public drinking water. [/blockquote]
BTW, my wife can remember when there was public outcry about the flouridation of water (a communist plot!) and how it would actually be bad for physical health as opposed to promoting better dental health.
A [i]disputed[/i] (i.e., unverfied) article on [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_fluoridation_controversy]wikipedia[/url] states in part:
[blockquote]Opponents and their arguments are diverse. Many groups continue to question the practice of water fluoridation despite the current stance of the medical and dental research communities. The various groups do not necessarily agree with one another, but they share some arguments against water fluoridation, including several key issues. Those opposed to public fluoridation of drinking water say that water fluoridation can have negative health effects (such as [i]dental fluorosis[/i]) which outweigh the purported benefits of water fluoridation. Some opponents claim that releasing fluoride compounds into municipal water takes away individual choice as to the substances a person ingests and amounts to mass medication. Some suggest water fluoridation is part of a scheme to dispose of a toxic industrial byproduct. Some opponents claim fluoridation affects intelligence, and was used in the Russian gulags to keep prisoners obedient.[/blockquote]
laughable, in part, but serious in others. the part about the [i]dental fluorosis[/i] is repeated on other websites.
Excellent news about the water! I drink old ones I leave in the car all the time, bring them back in the house and re-refrigerate them. I even saw Sheryl Crow talking about how bad that was on TV the other day! That’s Hollywood for you.
KTF…mrb
I think the City of San Francisco did a much wiser and money saving thing. It recently simply stopped providing free bottled water at all city offices, which was costing the city some three quarters of a million dollars per year. Besides, the city drinking water is very good, melted snow from the rivers of the High Sierra.
if you want to know what kind of filtration/ home treatment you might need you can go to the NSF website at nsf.org.
Thanks, plainsparson, I’ll check it out. The utility company has been very upfront about the barium in the water – I suppose they have to be.
I can’t think of any valid reason for buying and driking any bottled water in the US. Now in Cairo Egypt, that’s a different story. I was there one time when I witnessed a gang of city workers repairing a sewer line in one block and about a block and a half away another group was reparing a broken water main. For a time it seemed the liquids were coming down the street and mixing.
Harvey, I can, if you have well water and not city water. When I lived in West Palm, we didn’t have the luxury of city water yet, so we had a well system and water ‘softener’. The water was hideous, it was yellow and tasted of sulfur, even with treatment. Bottled water was the best option at that time.
I should have added:
This was BEFORE bottled water became fashionable. In those days the only source was Culligan (“Hey, Culligan Ma-a-a-n!”). My dad would take washed gallon milk jugs with him to work, and fill the bottles (about a dozen at a time) from the faucets at the park near his work-place. That was our source of drinking water, ice cubes, cooking water, water for tea, etc. You know, after the first wearing, I don’t think I had a WHITE t-shirt or socks (etc.) until the city finally hooked the neighborhood up to the city water supply.