A gaggle of lefty pols wish to pour chilly water on New York Metropolis’s ingesting habits.
NYC businesses can be prohibited from shopping for their water in single-use plastic bottles for a mixed 330,000-plus workforce below new laws by Councilman Erik Bottcher (D-Manhattan) and co-sponsored by Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and three different Democrats.
The invoice would prohibit the town from contracting with outdoors distributors to purchase particular person plastic bottles containing lower than a gallon of water, supplied it’s not for a public well being emergency.
Bottcher gushed NYC’s faucet water, which comes from the Catskills Mountains, is among the many world’s greatest – including he believes metropolis staff ought to set an instance for the remainder of the Large Apple by turning a faucet or hitting an workplace water cooler to quench their thirst.
“Have you learnt that New York Metropolis faucet water has been bottled and bought in shops?” stated Bottcher. “In the meantime [New Yorkers] are ingesting bottled water from Fiji.”
The town buys greater than one million disposable plastic bottles of water yearly for its businesses whereas New Yorkers discard greater than 742 million single-use plastic bottles – almost 21 million kilos – yearly, he added.
Throughout a Metropolis Corridor rally Thursday, Williams and Bottcher seemed like they hope the invoice will check the waters for a citywide ban of water in single-use plastic bottles.
“We have now to start out making the change to cease the normalization of what we’re doing and that’s what this invoice is about,” Williams stated.
A rep for Mayor Eric Adams stated his workplace will overview the invoice however already encourages metropolis staff to steer by instance and produce reusable water bottles to work.
The laws already has some critics.
Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens) stated she agrees that “single-use plastics are an issue” however the invoice screams of “authorities overreach” and “infringes upon individuals’s proper to decide on.”
“Not solely does this restrict selection for metropolis staff, however there’s additionally the fallout that must be thought of as nicely – the individuals who ship water bottles, who work at bottling vegetation, and so forth, will all be abruptly out of a job if we abruptly shift to a faucet water-reliant program,” she added.
