By Maria Hickey, KWMU
St. Louis, MO. – A national campaign to limit bottled water use has arrived in St. Louis and so far a handful of restaurants and the city have signed on.
The Schlafly Tap Room announced today (Monday) that it would no longer serve bottled water. Terrene , Pi, and MoKaBe's say they'll stick with tap water.
The Think Outside the Bottle campaign by Corporate Accountability International has already had success in cities like Seattle and San Francisco.
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay plans to phase out city department contracts for bottled water.
Tim Embree is the mayor's environmental aide.
"It's really a great idea on a few fronts: one, it's saving taxpayer dollars; two, we have the best-tasting water in the country, and we're encouraging our city employees, city citizens and citizens from around the region and visitors to use our tap water," Embree said.
During the 2007 U.S. Conference of Mayors St. Louis' tap water was voted the best tasting.
Embree says the official announcement to phase out bottled water in city departments will likely happen later this spring.