Mary Landers’ story “Savannah taps into tap water,” in the Savannah Morning News reports that the City of Savannah is making an environmentally- and fiscally-prudent effort to limit the use of bottled water by city employees. Laura Walker, who is organizing the Savannah’s Earth Day festivities, is interviewed for the story. Why is the city giving bottles the boot? Here’s a snip:
Making bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 17 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel more than 1 million U.S. cars for a year, according to the Earth Policy Institute.
About 83 percent of plastic water bottles used in the U.S. become garbage or litter, according to the Container Recycling Institute.
Meanwhile in the exchange section, Landers localized an AP story called “Environmental concerns force grocers, bag makers to rethink the plastic bag,” with a sidebar, “Investor bets on canvas.” In it, she interviewed Peter Krull who offers his clients socially-responsible financial services and reusable canvas grocery bags:
“Here is a bag to get you started, if you haven’t already,” wrote Krull on a fact sheet he sent along with the bags. “You’ll no longer be faced with the paper or plastic dilemma at the grocery store.”
Congratulations to Walker, Krull and Landers for their good work.
Photo credit: Ian via Flickr.
