This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Utah restaurant chain Gastronomy Inc. lent its support Friday to Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson's campaign against bottled water.
The company formally pledged to continue serving municipal tap water rather than bottled water at its 11 Salt Lake Valley operations - four Market Street Grills, three Market Street Oyster Bars, The New Yorker private club and three Market Street Fresh Fish Markets.
Thomas Guinney, a Gastronomy partner and director of operations, said "we've been putting tap water on tables for 27 years," adding that the hospitality industry is embracing environmentally conscious practices for business as well as social reasons. "It's timely. Fresh is in. Buying local. Going green in all aspects now makes good business sense."
Gastronomy was not alone in endorsing the campaign, which features a Web site, www.knockoutwaterbottles .com, where people and businesses can sign an online pledge to avoid bottled water. It was joined by four other Salt Lake City restaurants: Cedars of Lebanon, Himalayan Kitchen, Hong Kong Tea House and Kwan's Downtown Chinese.
Cedars of Lebanon owner Raffi Daghlian said he never hesitated to join Anderson's effort to do away with plastic water bottles.
"I was a biology major, and I'm very environmentally conscious. I don't like to waste things, and these bottles are not biodegradable," he said. "When the mayor raised the issue, I was in agreement with him. I did not think twice before I signed it. Someone has to start caring. This is my business to reduce our impacts on this Earth. Every person makes a difference."
Patrick Thronson, communications director in the Mayor's Office, said Salt Lake City is among a number of American and Canadian cities cooperating on a continental campaign to "think outside the bottle."
These cities espouse the consumption of municipal culinary water, maintaining it is cleaner and safer.
"The whole goal is to encourage businesses and consumers to wake up and recognize the enormous, unnecessary, global-warming consequences that come from the production, transportation and disposal of bottled water," Thronson said.
The International Bottled Water Association on Wednesday disputed the allegations by Corporate Accountability International (CAI), which pushed the continental campaign supported by Anderson.
"The CAI campaign is based on factual errors and subjective viewpoints on bottled water and does nothing more than confuse and misinform consumers," said the association, which includes U.S. and international bottlers, distributors and suppliers.
"Bottled water is comprehensively regulated as a packaged food product by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration [FDA] and state regulatory agencies. The current system of bottled water regulation provides consumers with outstanding bottled water safety, quality and public health protection," the association added.
Mayor Rocky Anderson's "Knock Out Bottled Water" campaign contends:
* 1.5 million barrels of oil are required annually to make plastic water bottles, using enough electricity to run 250,000 homes or 100,000 cars for a year.
* U.S. consumers spent more than $11 billion last year on bottled water, which per liter is more expensive than tap water and gasoline.
* Making smaller water bottles from PET (polyethylene terephthalate) can generate 100 times more toxic emissions than an equivalent amount of glass.