San Francisco airport bans sale of plastic bottles

Of all the places to ban plastic bottles this makes the lease sense.

People are traveling. Glass is not really a option.

But good job SF. Flavored water. The most useless water is still sold.

Any other place in SF and this sort of ban would be fine. But not a Airport.

There will undoubtably be many thousands of travelers who show up unaware or unprepared for this. Do these people now have to purchase a reusable bottle if they’d like to carry around a water with them? I sure hope this doesn’t end up backfiring and creating more waste.

Reusable bottles can consist of an order of magnitude or more plastic than a disposable water bottle, and if people aren’t reusing that bottle after they leave the airport, this might not actually lead to a reduction in waste.

I travel a lot, and one thing I always carry with me is a disposable plastic bottle. Good sturdy ones (SmartWater is the best one) that have a good cap (i.e. sturdy threads, not a sport cap) can be reused many times, and are lightweight. I have reused the same bottle for over a year sometimes.

You have the option to throw it out if you really need to, like if there’s a clueless security agent, you forget to drain it before security, or in airports where they don’t understand the security difference between an empty and a full bottle. In those situations, being able to replace it as soon as I go through security is a big help, otherwise you’re at the mercy of the flight attendants to decide to serve drinks.

Given the options of “reduce”, “reuse”, and “recycle”, they would be better off promoting “reuse” instead of “reduce” in this situation.

I don’t want to be forced to have to buy a Yeti when I’m traveling.

No bottles is a minor inconvenience, at worst. I have taken to loading up my carryon bag with thousands of free syringes that I charge with Gatorade, so I can directly inject electrolytes whenever I feel feint. Disposal of used syringes is a no-brainer: I just carelessly fling them in any random direction. As a hydration addict, I’m a marginalized person, so my needs come first.

> Filtered water is provided for free at 100 "hydration stations," where flyers can top up glass or metal bottles.

I'm glad to see this. My local (large, international) airport still hasn't upgraded its water fountains yet, forcing me to awkwardly refill my big water bottle from a tiny spout emitting a variable trickle.

There are not enough easily accessible refill faucets at SFO. They could sell cheapo reusable flasks and donate the money to charity. The flavored water exemption is flat out wrong imo

> It exempts brands of flavored water.

Does “flavored with electrolytes” count?