New York State Cuts Bottled Water Spending

Posted by Stacey Folsom, Corporate Accountability International at 4:03 PM on May 8, 2009.

You may recall reading several months ago that the Think Outside the Bottle campaign had begun to call on governors across the country to eliminate bottled water spending in order to support strong public water systems.

We placed top-notch organizers in ten states, including New York, and we are already seeing the fruits of their efforts: this week New York Governor David Paterson issued an executive order to phase out state spending on bottled water in direct response to our grassroots efforts led by John Stewart, our New York field organizer.

It's the most comprehensive action taken by a governor to date on this issue, and it sets the standard for the 49 other governors we are urging to follow suit.

News of this early campaign victory reached millions of people across the country, appearing in the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Forbes, USA Today, and beyond.

Here is the statement we released to the press:

The Think Outside the Bottle Campaign commends Governor David Paterson and the State of New York for today's executive order to phase out spending on bottled water for all state agencies and support public, tap water. This action sends an important message that in these difficult economic times, state government can both cut waste and invest in shared public resources, like water, upon which local economies rely. Governor Paterson's executive order is good for our pocketbooks, good for our environment, and good for our public water systems.

Earlier this year, the Think Outside the Bottle Campaign, a Corporate Accountability International-led initiative, issued a letter to all 50 governors encouraging them to stop spending state dollars on bottled water. Organizations and thousands of individuals nationwide joined the call. Today, New York became the first to answer it, acting at the urging of the grassroots. Recently, Paterson also signed into law a "Bigger, Better Bottle Bill" which includes a five cent deposit on bottled water sales, which is returned when the bottle is turned in for recycling. This executive order, however, goes one step further by reducing the overall amount of bottles that need to be recycled in the first place.

New York State is famous for its high-quality tap water, yet nearly 2.5 billion bottles of water are sold statewide. At the same time, the New York State Department of Health says that, "the conservative cost estimate of repairing, replacing, and updating New York's drinking water infrastructure is $38.7 billion over the next 20 years." As the bottled water industry has grown, public support for improving public water systems has diminished. Governor Paterson's announcement acknowledges that states send the wrong message when they promote and fund public tap water on the one hand and purchase bottled water on the other. This executive order points us in the right direction by prioritizing public dollars for long-term investments in public tap water.

New York has been a leader in the growing movement turning away from bottled water and supporting public, tap water. Last June, the New York City Council issued an announcement ending purchases of bottled water for city offices and city-sponsored events. Several New York restaurants, establishments, and cultural venues have gone bottled-water free, such as Del Posto, the Park Slope Food Co-op, and the Museum of Modern Art. Mayor Bloomberg cosponsored a resolution passed at last year's U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting that encouraged cities to phase out taxpayer spending on bottled water, an action taken by at least sixty cities.

This executive order can and will be a model to other cities, states, and federal agencies that are looking to cut budgetary pork, reduce their environmental footprint, and send a strong message about the importance of investing in strong public water systems for a long time to come.

Tagged as: water, bottled water