SAN FRANCISCO Mayor Gavin Newsom announced a new citywide campaign yesterday to discourage local restaurants from selling bottled water, citing environmental concerns.
The Take Back the Tap initiative does not extend to legislation or other mandates that discourage or prohibit bottled water from being sold. Rather, the mayor is using public pressure and the bully pulpit of his office to press for a stop in bottled water sales.
At a press conference, the mayor indicated that San Francisco’s more than 3,000 restaurants will receive from the city a copy of an instructional pamphlet, “How-To Guide for the San Francisco Restaurant to Switch to Tap Water.”
He noted that a number of the area’s eateries have already stopped selling water that has been shipped to the establishments in bottles, including Berkeley’s Chez Panisse and San Francisco’s Incanto, Delfina and Nopa.
For restaurateurs who relish the attractive margins afforded by bottled water, the mayor’s campaign could be the latest in a long list of recent setbacks to the business. The city also recently expanded a health care program, with the funding coming in part from an assessment on restaurants and other employers. The city is also the first in the nation to adopt a mandate on paid sick leave. A menu-labeling requirement is expected to be signed into law soon by Newsom and put into effect on July 1.
The restaurants that have stopped selling water from outside sources did not suffer any negative impact to their bottom lines, Newsom said at the press conference on Thursday.
The mayor directed city departments to stop buying bottled water some time ago: “We are drinking tap water again at City Hall and across city government, and I call upon the restaurant industry to join us in promoting the best-tasting water in the country by removing bottled water from their menus.”
Some advocates for the environment say bottled water depletes natural resources and contributes to the burning of fossil fuels because it has to be bottled and shipped, when water is readily available from a tap. They also comment that the use of containers clogs landfills and garbage sites.