Alamo Square, San Francisco (photo by Kevin Connors, courtesy of morguefile.com)

The Mayor of San Francisco is asking the city’s restaurants to stop serving bottled water and serve tap water instead. Once a restaurateur himself, Mayor Gavin Newsom is only requesting that restaurants make the change, rather then proposing legislation to ban bottled water.

An article in the San Francisco Chronicle points out that, “The mayor made international headlines last year when he banned city government from spending tax dollars on bottled water for its employees, saying the containers clog landfills and pollute the environment.”

Recent testing by the American Waterworks Association Research Foundation found San Francisco’s watersupply to be one of the few tested that were free of contaminants. Blind taste tests revealed that San Francisco’s tap water was preferred over some bottled waters.

Food and Water Watch, a consumer advocacy group, is leading a national campaign to get restaurants to stop selling bottled water. The group’s executive director says that bottled water is a “con job and a scam.” He says customers who decline bottled water and request tap water can feel virtuous, not cheap.

If you’d like to read the San Francisco Chronicle article cited above go to: Restaurants urged to eschew bottles in favor of tap water

To view previous posts on the topic go to:
1. A Victory for Tap Water!
2. Tap Water as the Sustainable Choice