San Francisco Moves Closer to Banning Plastic Water Bottles

San Francisco moved to restrict the sale of plastic water bottles on city property on Tuesday, the first such action by a major U.S. municipality and the latest in a string of waste-reduction measures that included a ban on plastic grocery bags.

The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to begin phasing out the sale and distribution of water in single-use plastic bottles on city-owned or leased land next fall, and to ban future water bottle purchases with city funds.

"There are incredible, enormous environmental costs of plastic water bottles," said Supervisor David Chiu, who introduced the measure.