Hospitality industry ditching bottles

Ted Nesi
nesi@pbn.com
Under pressure from environmentalists, more hotels and restaurants are getting rid of the bottle and switching back to the tap.
Two national advocacy organizations are running campaigns to raise awareness of the environmental impact of bottled water and promote a return to tap water. The Boston-based nonprofit, Corporate Accountability International, is preparing to bring its Think Outside the Bottle campaign to Rhode Island this fall.
“There is a national trend of the nation’s most well-regarded restaurants who feel that purchasing and selling bottled water sends the wrong message about our tap water,” said Deborah Lapidus, the national organizer for Think Outside the Bottle.
Corporate Accountability already has convinced thousands of establishments across the country to cancel their bottledwater contracts, including Local 121 in Providence and Garden Grille Café in Pawtucket. “It’s a way to promote the high quality of Providence’s tap water, instead of its high-priced corporate competitor,” Lapidus said.
Sarah Kite, director of recycling services for the R.I. Resource Recovery Corporation, said discarded plastic bottles are a growing part of the state’s trash management problems. “We actually don’t get a lot of water bottles through recycling,” she said. “We see very, very few single-serving water bottles. So where do they end up? In the trash.”
Kite said reducing waste from water bottles is a problem that requires cooperation between haulers, restaurant owners, hoteliers, caterers and bottlers. “I would definitely like to see the bottled water industry step up to the plate and start to fund some more aggressive public area and workplace recycling programs,” she said.
Rhode Island also has never passed a bottle bill, such as exist in eight other states, including Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont, which tacks a redeemable deposit onto all beverage containers. Advocates say such a law would significantly reduce the amount of waste the bottles generate.
Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Paiva Weed, D-Newport, sponsored a bill earlier this year that would have added a 5 cent charge to most beverage containers sold in the state. But the final version that became law only called for the RIRRC to study the impact a 5 cent charge would have.
Bottled water has never been sold at Benders Caffé on Weybosset Street in Providence. Owner and manager Chris Mathis said the decision reflected Benders’ commitment to environmentalism and concerns about the waste generated by used bottles.
Habits are hard to break, though, and customers still try to buy bottled water. “They do ask, but we just tell them we’re a bottle free-organization, and we have a jug of tap water,” Mathis said. “Their [response is] usually, ‘Oh!’ And it’s a pretty good reaction.”
The groups are swimming against a powerful tide. In 2007, Americans spent $12 billion on nearly 9 billion gallons of bottled water, according to Food & Water Watch, the group behind the other pro-tap campaign.
There are also a number of logistical and economic reasons why businesses might be reluctant to ditch bottled water. For one thing, the contracts that establishments sign with convention and meeting planners often call for bottled water. For caterers, it can be difficult to transport, store and distribute cold tap water, compared with cases of bottled water.
In order to help, Food & Water Watch has posted on its Web site a 20-page document for hospitality industry managers called “Free Your Event from Bottled Water,” offering tips on how to manage a transition from bottled to tap.
In addition, bottled water often provides a boost to the bottom line. “Bottled water does have a significant profit margin, and they’re reluctant to give that up, which is understandable,” said Lapidus. “But others are taking steps to become more sustainable.” She added that it’s in the interest of the hospitality industry to ensure a high level of public support remains for investing in local water quality.
The largest water utility in Rhode Island is Providence Water, which provides tap water to 60 percent of the state’s residents, supplying 67 million gallons per day to 17 cities and towns. “I think we have some of the best water in the country,” said Pamela Marchand, Providence Water’s general manager and chief engineer.
Marchand has spent two decades working on water issues, and said she has noticed a decline in consumers’ opinions about tap water, which environmentalists say is the result of a concerned campaign by bottlers to undermine public confidence in public water. “There seems to be a lot of mistrust of the municipalities’ water systems, which really should not be the case,” she said. “They’re extremely highly regulated.”
In fact, tap water and bottled water are not even overseen by the same regulator. The nation’s tap water system is regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, while bottled water is under the purview of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
One area in which tap water clearly comes out on top is price – 12 ounces of water can cost $1 or more in a bottle, but costs just pennies coming out of the tap. Providence Water, for instance, charges about $2.50 to deliver 1,000 gallons of water. “I think it’s the biggest bargain out there,” said Marchand.
Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline also has offered support for the campaign against bottled water. He recently co-sponsored a resolution against bottled water at the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and is looking to phase out city purchases of bottled water.
On Aquidneck Island, all four facilities owned by Wyndham Vacation Resorts have switched to filtered tap water. A.J. Schindler, Wyndham’s chief engineer in Rhode Island, said the result has been “extreme cost savings for us.” Schindler has installed carbon and micron filters at all the places, from faucets to waitress stations, where tap water gets delivered.
The Hotel Viking in Newport advertises its use of tap water as part of its new “green meetings” package, which has proven popular with event planners. •