Government
The Case for Taxing Bottled Water
The public should be able to recoup some of the social, ethical, and environmental costs of bottled water.
Five years ago, it seemed unimaginable that a tax on plastic bags would spread from socially conscious San Francisco to cities including Los Angeles, Dallas, and Washington D.C. But it did—and early findings suggest that there have been reductions in plastic bag use.
Why don’t we do the same for bottled water? There are enormous environmental, social, and ethical costs associated with bottled water. The public should be able to recoup them.