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    Sign On Letter To Port Authority Plastic Water Bottles

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    Alexander Kaufman
    The organizations urge the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to ban the sale of single-use plastic water bottles at its airports. They argue that bottled water is unnecessary given the high quality of tap water in the region. They point to the example of San Francisco International Airport banning bottled water sales and increasing water refill stations. Banning plastic water bottle sales would reduce waste and plastic pollution while providing access to safe drinking water through fountains and refill stations.

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    Sign On Letter To Port Authority Plastic Water Bottles

    Uploaded by

    Alexander Kaufman
    188 views5 pages
    The organizations urge the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to ban the sale of single-use plastic water bottles at its airports. They argue that bottled water is unnecessary given the high quality of tap water in the region. They point to the example of San Francisco International Airport banning bottled water sales and increasing water refill stations. Banning plastic water bottle sales would reduce waste and plastic pollution while providing access to safe drinking water through fountains and refill stations.

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    Letter organized by Beyond Plastics

    Original Title

    Sign on Letter to Port Authority Plastic Water Bottles

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    The organizations urge the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to ban the sale of single-use plastic water bottles at its airports. They argue that bottled water is unnecessary given the high quality of tap water in the region. They point to the example of San Francisco International Airport banning bottled water sales and increasing water refill stations. Banning plastic water bottle sales would reduce waste and plastic pollution while providing access to safe drinking water through fountains and refill stations.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    188 views5 pages

    Sign On Letter To Port Authority Plastic Water Bottles

    Uploaded by

    Alexander Kaufman
    The organizations urge the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to ban the sale of single-use plastic water bottles at its airports. They argue that bottled water is unnecessary given the high quality of tap water in the region. They point to the example of San Francisco International Airport banning bottled water sales and increasing water refill stations. Banning plastic water bottle sales would reduce waste and plastic pollution while providing access to safe drinking water through fountains and refill stations.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 5

    December 2, 2019

    Rick Cotton, Executive Director


    The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
    4 World Trade Center, 150 Greenwich Street
    New York, NY 10007

    Dear Director Cotton:

    We, the undersigned organizations, believe that The Port Authority has a tremendous opportunity
    to improve the environmental footprint of its airports and we write to urge you to ban the sale of
    single-use plastic water bottles at all the airports you operate.

    Although bottled water is a necessity in some areas, the New York metropolitan area is fortunate
    to have some of the highest quality tap water available1, sourced from reservoirs in the Catskill
    Mountain watershed. Selling water in single-use plastic bottles is unnecessary and could pose a
    threat to the health of airport customers as well to the health of our environment at both a local
    and global level.

    In August of this year, San Francisco International Airport (SFO) stopped the sale of single-use
    plastic water bottles in all of its concessions, adding more water refilling stations to quench
    travelers' and employees’ thirst. We urge you to follow SFO’s lead and ban the sale of single-use
    plastic water bottles at Newark Liberty International Airport, JFK International Airport, and
    LaGuardia Airport as soon as possible.

    The State of New York operates under an executive order which prohibits state funds from being
    used for the purchase of single-use plastic water bottles2. This executive order has been a huge
    success - details on that state-level policy initiative are available from the NYS Department of
    Environmental Conservation.

    One million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute; by 2021, more than half a
    trillion plastic bottles will be sold annually. At best, less than one third of these plastic bottles
    will be recycled, the remainder will be buried, burned, or end up in our rivers and oceans where
    they will persist for hundreds of years, making their way into the food chain, soil, and water.
    Plastic bottles and bottle caps consistently rank in the top ten most collected plastic trash items in
    the annual September beach cleanups conducted in more than 100 countries.

    1
    https://www1.nyc.gov/site/dep/water/drinking-water.page
    2
    https://ogs.ny.gov/greenny/executive-order-18-frequently-asked-questions
    Water sold in plastic bottles is far from pure. The majority of it is simply tap water with one
    unwelcome addition -- microplastic particles. A recent study3 found microplastics contamination
    in 93% of the globally-sourced bottled waters they tested; these levels were two times higher
    than those they'd previously recorded in tap water samples. Although the impact of microplastic
    contamination on human health is not yet well studied, scientists and medical professionals are
    concerned by the fact that each of us is consuming roughly a credit card’s worth (five grams) of
    plastic particles each week, according to a recent study by the University of New Castle in
    Australia4. A separate study5 found that Americans eat, drink and breathe between 74,000 and
    121,000 microplastic particles each year and that those who exclusively drink bottled water
    rather than tap water can increase their yearly microplastic intake by up to 90,000 plastic
    particles.

    Bottled water does not make sense economically. While tap water costs less than half a penny
    per gallon, bottled water costs between $0.89 to $8.26 per gallon, costing hundreds of times
    more than tap water to produce. And although bottled water’s appeal may hang on the idea that it
    tastes better than tap water, numerous blind taste tests, including several specifically conducted
    in New York City have revealed that it is no more appealing (and sometimes less pleasing6) than
    tap water7.

    Single-use plastic water bottles also represent a significant waste of natural resources that carries
    a heavy carbon footprint. The total energy required for bottled water production is as much as
    2,000 times the energy needed to produce tap water and producing just one liter of water bottled
    in PET plastic requires three liters of water, a significant waste of resources and contribution to
    climate change.

    Empty plastic water bottles also make up a significant amount of the waste collected in airports.
    By eliminating this source of single-use plastic waste, the Port Authority can reduce the amount
    of recycling and trash that needs to be collected by airport staff and sent off site for recycling and
    landfilling - another big carbon savings that may also result in a cost savings depending on the
    way the airports’ waste management contracts are structured.

    We urge you to lead on this pressing environmental and public health issue by joining SFO in
    banning the sale of single-use plastic water bottles at Newark, JFK and LaGuardia without delay.
    Water fountains and water filling stations are a commonsense, cost-effective, healthy, and far
    more environmentally-friendly way to provide adequate hydration to passengers and staff in

    3
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6141690/
    4
    https://d2ouvy59p0dg6k.cloudfront.net/downloads/plastic_ingestion_web_spreads.pdf
    5
    https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.9b01517
    6
    https://abcnews.go.com/2020/Health/story?id=728070&page=1
    7
    https://20somethingfinance.com/bottled-water-versus-tap-water/
    these three airports. We also urge you to work with concessions to ensure the sale of a variety of
    reusable water bottles at the airports.

    Thank you for giving serious consideration to the plastic pollution crisis and working to ensure
    safe, affordable drinking water for all at our major metropolitan airports. Please contact Eve Fox
    at Beyond Plastics ([email protected] or 845-443-6133) to schedule a time to meet about
    this important matter.

    Sincerely,

    Judith Enck
    Founder, Beyond Plastics

    Blair Horner
    Executive Director, New York Public Interest Research Group

    Doug O'Malley
    Director, Environment New Jersey

    Brian Langloss
    New York Campaign Organizer, Oceana

    Jeremy Cherson
    Legislative Advocacy Manager, Riverkeeper

    Caitlin Ferrante
    Conservation & Development Program Director, Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter

    Eric Goldstein
    New York City Environment Director, Natural Resources Defense Council

    Manna Jo Greene
    Environmental Action Director, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc.

    Dune Ives
    Executive Director, Lonely Whale

    Katherine Nadeau
    Deputy Director, Catskill Mountainkeeper
    Eric Weltman
    Senior Organizer, Food & Water Action

    Lauren Cosgrove
    Senior Program Manager, National Parks Conservation Association

    Heather Davis
    Assistant Professor, The New School

    Denise Patel
    US Program Director, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives

    Greg Todd
    Co-founder, BK Green Cart

    Don Riepe
    Director, NY Chapter of the American Littoral Society

    Jennifer Scarlott
    Coordinator, Bronx Climate Justice North

    Debby Lee Cohen


    Executive Director and Founder, Cafeteria Culture

    Meredith Danberg-Ficarelli
    Director, Common Ground Compost, LLC

    Christina Grace
    CEO, Foodprint Group, Inc.

    Patti Wood
    Executive Director, Grassroots Environmental Education

    Robert Saffer
    Garden Steward, Imani Community Garden

    Allen Hunter
    Environmental Activism Committee Member, Judson Memorial Church
    Jerry Rivers
    Environmental Scientist, North American Climate, Conservation and Environment (NACCE)

    Matt Malina
    Director & Founder, NYC H2O

    Monica Rocha
    Web Designer, ABC Home & Carpet

    Sarah Currie-Halpern
    Co-Founder, Think Zero LLC

    Greg Todd
    President, Waste Not Permaculture

    Nada Khader
    Executive Director, WESPAC Foundation

    Sara Gronim
    Co-leader, 350Brooklyn

    Cc: Governor Andrew Cuomo


    Governor Phil Murphy
    Port of Authority Board of Commissioners: Kevin J. O'Toole, Jeffrey H. Lynford, Richard H.
    Bagger, Leecia Eve, Daniel J. Horwitz, Gary LaBarbera, Kevin P. McCabe, George T.
    McDonald
    Raymond M. Pocino, Rossana Rosado, David S. Steiner

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