Water bills
The bills for a recycling conference the Kansas Department of Health and Environment hosted several months ago in Hutchinson are trickling in just now.
Or should we say pouring in like water from a bottle.
The bill for the bottled water KDHE served up at the conference, attended by more than 300 people, was $1,140. The cost per bottle was estimated at $2.50, which is about $1.25 more than a bottle of water you can purchase at a convenience store.
Government waste barely rates a headline these days, but a state agency that hosts a recycling conference ought to be in tune with the energy costs associated with producing those plastic bottles that hold all that water.
KDHE says it recycled all the empty water bottles from its conference in Hutchinson.
But the bigger issue centers on a growing environmental concern about the energy costs associated with producing just one of those plastic bottles.
Certainly in most communities, KDHE could serve up that city's tap water. But KDHE, which should be among the state's most environmentally minded agencies, could have used the Hutchinson recycling conference as a teaching tool by encouraging participants to bring reusable water bottles.
That might not be convenient or popular with attendees, but the conference emphasis was on waste reduction not water consumption.
— Editorial by the Hutchinson News
