Chicago Puts Bottled Water Tax on Tap

With bottled water getting bad marks from environmentalists and Chicago eager to green up its act, a city alderman has proposed a first: a 25-cent tax on bottled water. George Cardenas says that not only is all that plastic a disaster, but drinking bottled water cuts consumption of Chicago's own award-winning water, which hits the city in the pocketbook.

"There's a cost associated with this behavior. You have to pay for it," says Cardenas. Mayor Daley, an avid environmentalist who is also a bottled-water guzzler, all but endorsed the proposal today, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Many cities have cut off municipal purchases of bottled water, but Chicago would be the first to tax it. (More bottled water stories.)