San Francisco International Airport bans the sale of water in single-use plastic bottles.
The ban will take effect on August 20, writes the San Francisco Chronicle.
”We are, as far as we know, the first airport in the world to implement this,” Doug Yakel, a spokesman for the airport, told the newspaper.
If you are thirsty, you are encouraged to buy a reusable glass or aluminum bottle and fill it yourself from the airport's water dispensers. Flavored water is not affected, as are coffee, juice and tea. The ban will also apply to all airport restaurants and cafes.
San Francisco International Airport has set a goal to become the world's first zero-waste airport by 2021. This means that up to 90 percent of the waste, instead of being burned or ending up in so-called landfills, needs to be composted or recycled, CNN reports.
This is not the airport's first step in reducing its waste. Most recently, in March this year, they introduced a ban on, among other things, disposable plastic cutlery.
Airports in Dubai and India have similar plans to ban plastic bottles, but these have not yet been fully implemented.
Over 400 million tons of plastic items are produced each year, and 70 percent of the plastic that ends up in the oceans comes from single-use items. This is something that California has previously tried to reduce by banning restaurants in the state from automatically providing their customers with plastic straws.
Source: TT
