Starting today, retailers at San Francisco International Airport will be prohibited from selling customers water in plastic bottles.
According to the new rule, retailers, restaurants, airline lounges and vending machines at the airport will now be required to serve water in aluminum, glass or compostable bottles.
According to airport officials, the move to ban plastic water bottles is part of a larger effort to move toward zero waste.
Back in 2016, the airport set a goal to achieve a zero waste policy by 2021. As part of that goal, the airport has already required restaurants to provide customers with single-use food ware in compostable packaging.
SFO generates more than 28 million pounds of waste annually, airport officials said.
With the new rule, the airport is encouraging travelers to bring reusable beverage containers with them and fill them up at any one of the nearly 100 fee hydration stations throughout the airport.
The new plastic bottle ban only applies to water and doesn’t apply to flavored beverages like soda, juice or tea.
More information about the airport’s new rule can be found at www.flysfo.com/plastic-free.
38 comments
Will China and India follow suit?
No?
Well… this oughta save the planet!
It is a positive beginning. Our planet is in big trouble.
Banning gas leaf blowers with their toxic pollution blowing dirt debris and gas in the air is a significant way to help save this very ill planet, but most are too selfish and lazy to rake and sweep, even on spare the air days.
@AuntBarabara….I concur!!
I’m pretty sure that no one is allowed to use leaf blowers in SFO’s terminals.
The planet is just fine. There’s nothing here that didn’t come from here. Our species may have some challenges.
They are hoping you will forget your reusable bottle and buy a new one in the terminal for $15.
But you’re flyingggg
Exactly! Fools!
You will also need a REAL ID to buy water!
Won’t be flying anytime soon.Too inconvenient
Instead of tossing your disposable water bottle before TSA screening and then buying another one (at a high price) at one of the shops inside, just bring your disposable water bottle to the airport (as usual), empty it before going through the TSA screening, then refill it at one of the “hydration stations” in the airport and then dispose of it on the airplane.
Get out of here with your logic!
I suppose you missed the part where they will be charging you for the water you put back in the bottle you emptied before screening. :-
The water from the hydration stations is free.
So you have to pay to re-fill your bottle at the “nearly 100 fee hydration stations”?
It’s a misprint; should read “free” not “fee!” Pretty amusing misprint though.
Free now, fee later when there is no alternative available.
Feels like we’re going back to the good ‘ol days of pay toilets in the airport. (Now I’m really dating myself)
When I was a kid all your sodas, water and juice came in glass bottles and then this thing called plastic came along. Also, all your groceries were put into paper bags and not plastic. Just goes to show you, what goes around comes around. Not against recycling or reusing material, just look at the plastic and crap floating around the ocean!
All this plastic is for so called convenience. I for one, have never relied on bottled water. Have not needed it, and I am compelled to think most others don’t NEED their plastic water bottles either. These plastic water bottles seem to me to be little more than a security blanket for the meek. Something that projects a false image of purity and health perhaps?
in the future, passengers will be required to bring their own planes. teehee
What about flavored Water ? All the water manufactures need to do is add a tiny bit of flavor, that can not be detected by taste.This will get around the new law.
Things getting more and more Orwellian every day. They just want you to stay in your coop and stay silent.
I don’t understand why, after 4 million years, people (mostly female) feel they must have water at their side every waking moment. If they forget their water bottle, will they shrivel up and blow away?
Water is good for you. Maybe they’re thirsty, especially in warm weather. Are you the water police? Would you prefer they drink alcohol instead?
I thought you couldn’t take liquid through the TSA checkpoint. How will they know you have water in the multiple use bottle you are carrying. You could have ten oz of shampoo which isn’t allowed.
They check any water bottle, and if it has liquids in it, they must be disposed of before being allowed thru TSA, then after your in the terminal refill at a free fill station.
I dislike these laws with a passion.
Like every one prior to it, they’ll come out with a way to bypass the law, and mark my words, it’ll be a more expensive option. Perhaps it’ll be water in cans or glass.
The other thing is– you can still buy every other beverage in plastic bottles.
Don’t they have plant based water bottles?
Not necessarily….. At Oakland Airport you can bring your own reusable water bottle and they have area’s where you can fill your bottle up with water…. I’m guessing SF has the same thing… and not everyone wants a sugary more expensive drink….for instance, me…. but it is pointless to still have other drinks in plastic bottles…
The same people that pass these ridiculous laws probably drive battery
operated cars that will pollute this earth far worse than straws and plastic bottles. Thank god I am gone from demaphobia kalifornia where newscum and his possy destroy what is left of this great nation.
I usually buy a whole bunch of 3 oz. mini bottles from BevMo or Total Wine.
Per TSA: You can put as many bottles that will fit in a Quart size clear plastic bag. – One bag permitted per flyer.
Keep them in your carry-on. Easy flying…
W.C. Fields: I don’t drink water…
Yeah, that’s the ticket. Just make a lot of complaints and spew your bottles all over the world. Can’t anyone understand that there are problems and they need solving, even if it is a step at a time? You are all a bunch of children, grow up and help out!
Don’t get me wrong. In spirit the idea of reducing waste is good but often the implementation is poor and overly complicated. The government doesn’t doesn’t exactly hire geniuses nor do we elect them.
Good riddance. It’s a waste. Get a reusable bottle and stop whining about everything. Or and this may be novel…go without a bottle of water in sight for several hours and see if you die. Bet you don’t. But if I’m wrong, well back to sentence one, good riddance.
Fools.
Additionally, plastic water bottles that you buy by the case in the stores are not meant to be reused and I doubt the plastics they use for them are very safe for long term (anything more than a couple weeks) water storage. So…if you bring your own, then refill it, and dump it when done then what is really saved? You will just be throwing away a water bottle you brought from home and throwing it away there anyways.
..and just wait. Some creative individuals will start doing some very unsanitary things in or to those dispensers making it something you would not want to drink out of anyways.
Couldnt glass bottle be more unsafe in an airport? Break one and it becomes a weapon. Just saying that is one of the possible choices they listed, hope they go for the paper one
Just what I want to do, fill up my bottle at a public refilling station! After a very short time, I’m sure they’ll be just as sanitary as a water fountain.
On another note, I love seeing all the news stories that show the forklift moving cubes of crushed plastic bottle. Is this a bad thing? It’s taken at a recycling center! I thought the reason we moved to plastic bottles in the first place is because they were easily recycled.
Comments are closed.