Durham 1st county in NC to stop buying plastic bottled water with taxpayer money

The Durham County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Monday to ban the purchase of single-serve, plastic water bottles with county funds.

“I think we’re all aware of the problems that plastics have in our environment and our health when they are either not recycled or they end up in our environment because they are not disposed of properly,” said Tobin Freid, sustainability manager.

“They get in our water base. They cause all sorts of problems,” she said. “And there’s a really easy solution, which is to drink the wonderful tap water we have here.”

The policy goes into effect July 1. There will be exceptions for public health emergencies.

Board Chairwoman Wendy Jacobs said the county moved quickly to enact the ban.

Jacobs said board member Heidi Carter was behind the change, speaking up about the problem late last year. Over the holidays, the county came up with a re-usable metal water bottle for all the staff.

The policy was on Monday night’s consent agenda, reserved for items that don’t require further discussion, but Jacobs believed it deserved attention and had Freid say a few words.

In a telephone interview after the meeting, Freid said no other governments in North Carolina, or even the Southeast, have enacted such a ban. Around the nation, a handful of cities have, including Austin, Texas; Brookline, Mass.; Seattle; San Francisco, Palo Alto, Calif.; and Salt Lake City. Also, in Canada, Montreal has a similar ban.

“So there are a few,” Freid said. “There’s not a ton.”

Freid also said that when she reached out to other governments about the ban, a lot expressed interest and wanted to see how it goes in Durham. She said the city of Durham is working on a similar ban.

“It’ll be a challenge,” Freid said. “Definitely people are used to buying bottled water for meetings.”

The county will provide coolers that can be loaned out for meetings. For larger events, such as festivals, the county will provide water trucks. They will probably use paper cups, which, although they are disposable, are at least biodegradable, unlike plastic bottles.

Freid said she like to see water fountains with a spout for filling cups or re-usable bottles.

“Bottled water has not been around forever,” Freid said. “Before bottled water this is how we did things.”