GRAND RAPIDS FIRST MI CITY TO TAKE BACK THE TAP
The Wege Foundation is collaborating with the city of Grand Rapids, Saint Mary’s Health Care and its three health clubs, Grand Rapids Community College, and the Gilmore chain of restaurants to join the national movement called Take Back the Tap. In following Peter Wege’s philosophy of economicology, the shared mission is to educate people on the economic and ecological benefits of drinking tap water instead of buying water in plastic bottles.
Grand Rapids was the first city in the United States to fluoridate its water in 1945. In 2009, Grand Rapids is now the first city in Michigan to pass a resolution officially ending the purchase of bottled water for any city function, except in an emergency. This initiative to Take Back the Top is raising awareness about the negative environmental, health, and economic consequences of buying bottled water.
Because the bottled-water industry has marketed its product as “pure” and “spring-fed,” the American public is unaware that bottled water is far less monitored, tested, or regulated than is the city water in their own kitchen sinks!
Americans spent $12 billion on bottled water in 2007 and 87% of those plastic bottles—that take 1,000 years to degrade—ended up in waterways and land fills. The 17 million barrels of oil spent on making and shipping those bottles would have fueled one million cars for a year.
The Wege Foundation is asking other municipalities who buy water from Grand Rapids to consider adopting its own Take Back the Tap resolution.
Also read about -Vancouver Promotes Tap Water During Olympic Games
**Key Facts**
American consumers drink more bottled water every year, in part because they think it is safer or better than tap water. They collectively spend hundreds or thousands of times more per gallon for water in a plastic bottle than they would for the water flowing from their taps.
• The Grand Rapids City Commission will introduce a resolution to “Take Back the Tap,” a national movement to eliminate bottled water, at its October 20 meeting.
• The City of Grand Rapids will no longer purchase or use bottled water at City facilities or events.
• Joining the City in the kickoff effort are the Gilmore Collection restaurants, and the three health clubs owned by Saint Mary’s Health Care.
• The Wege Foundation is locally sponsoring this effort.
• The Food and Drug Administration regulates only the 30% to 40% of bottled water sold across state lines. The Federal government requires far more rigorous and frequent safety testing and monitoring of municipal drinking water.”
• Bottled water is significantly more expensive than tap water. Bottled water ranges from $0.89 to $8.26 per gallon. This compares to less than one-third of one cent per gallon for Grand Rapids water. Bottled water is at least 275 to over 2,400 times cheaper than Grand Rapids water.
• Bottled water is not subject to the rigorous testing that tap water is required to meet.
• United States plastic bottle production requires more than 17 million barrels of oil, enough to fuel one million cars.
• Plastic bottles can leach chemicals into the water, and about 86% of the empty plastic bottles in the United States land in the garbage instead of being recycled.
• Grand Rapids was the first city in the country to fluoridate its water in 1945.
• Sherri Days from Kendall College of Art and Design designed the official logo for this effort.
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