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| San Francisco Launches Pioneering GlobalTap 'Refilling Stations' That Are Strangely Similar to, um, Water Fountains
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Just to be clear, I'm totally in support of San Francisco's efforts to end the use of bottled water. And have heartily applauded the city's decision to cancel its bottled water contracts and the efforts of many local restaurants to promote tap.
But, this press release is just too funny to not mention. Here's a snippet:
San Francisco Department of the Environment (SFE) and San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) officials today announced new tap water partnerships as part of the City's efforts to promote "on the go" access to San Francisco's great tasting Hetch Hetchy tap water while reducing waste from use of plastic bottled water. In 2007, Mayor Gavin Newsom barred the use of City tax dollars for the purchase of bottled water. The demand for bottled water puts a strain on our environment and resources and bottled water can cost as much as 1,000 times more than tap water.
In Yerba Buena Gardens, SFE Director Jared Blumenfeld and others unveiled the pilot water refilling station from GlobalTap, an international provider of new and innovative clean drinking water refilling stations. Following the pilot installation, SFPUC and SFE officials hope to install additional stations throughout San Francisco in 2010.
"San Francisco has been a leader in educating people about the negative impacts of bottled water," said Blumenfeld. "Today we are honored to be the first U.S. city to host a GlobalTap filling station. Now San Franciscans can 'BYOB' ('Bring Your Own Bottle') every day."
Wow, 'refilling stations.' It sounds so space agey, and yet also strangely reminiscent of time when we used to have just that, only we called them something else. What was it ... water fountains?
But, wait, it gets better:
The City also announced its partnership with TapIt, a New York-based organization that has assembled a network of cafes, restaurants and other businesses throughout San Francisco where people on-the-go can refill their water bottle. People can access the network of participating businesses through the use of TapIt's search and mapping features on their personal computers, Smartphones or by downloading the TapIt Water iPhone application from the Apple Store.
Yes, no social movement is complete without an iPhone app. In all seriousness though, if this kind of stuff is what it takes to get people to carry around their own reusable bottles and drink tap over the throw-away plastic crap from Coke or Nestle, then I'm all for it.
Sometimes though, we have to laugh at ourselves a little. And this seems to be one of those moments. OK, hilarious ... now back to work saving the world.
1 comment:
Just stumbled upon your site. And you are right, a true conservative would uphold the Constitution, conserve the planet and all life upon it, would be in many ways what we'd call a progressive or even a radical leftist today.
This tap water piece was quirky and well writ, but scanning some of your other fare methinks elsewhere lies more meat on the bones. That said, I do enjoy reading any and all things San Francisco and do enjoy the high Sierra runoff, though I'm with John Muir when it comes to Hetch Hetchy. Bring back the valley!
I'll certainly be back to read more. Keep up the good work.
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