While our country’s leaders ‘try to tackle’ the world’s biggest problems, they contribute to a number of them, too. For example, Corporate Accountability International reports that the House of Representatives spent $860,000 in one year alone on bottled water (almost $2,000 per House member), despite the availability of cheaper, greener options. That money could have purchased 4,000 water fountains! Seriously, how are they spending so much on water?
Looking for a way to cut wasteful spending? (Of course, this isn’t going to solve our economic problems, but it sure would be a helpful step to cut this wasteful, harmful spending.)
DC Water’s George Hawkins has challenged the House to go bottled-water-free now and has actually offered to give each member of Congress reusable bottles and free water quality testing. Here’s a video of him talking about some of these issues.
A few members have caught on — 16 Congressional offices are reducing spending on bottled water now — but not the large majority of them.
If you aren’t one of the over 65,000 who have signed a petition to the House in the last week to drop bottled water, sign the petition here now:
Photo Credit: Mr. T in DC
Zachary Shahan
If you couldn't guess, I spend most of my time on CleanTechnica and Planetsave. I'm the director/editor of both sites and am a little obsessed with them. I'm also Publishing Services Manager at Important Media, which means that I do everything I can to support other Important Media writers, editors, and directors (as well as the network as a whole) in the good work they are engaged in. You can also find my written work on Scientific American, Reuters, Change.org, and most of the sites in the Important Media network. For a full list of my author pages on sites around the internet, or to connect with me on common social networks, go to zacharyshahan.com
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