VENICE, Italy — In this hot and noble city, discarded water bottles float by gondolas on the edges of the canals and spill out of trash cans on the majestic Piazza San Marco. Because Venice has no roads, trash must be collected on foot at enormous expense. And while plastic bottles can in principle be recycled, the process still unleashes greenhouse gases.
Italians are the world’s leading consumers of bottled water, drinking more than 40 gallons per person annually. But as their environmental consciousness deepens, officials here are avidly promoting what was previously unthinkable: That Italians should drink tap water.
For decades, bottled water has been the norm on European tables, although tap water in many, if not most, cities is suitable for drinking.
Officials took a leaf from the advertising playbook that has helped make bottled water a multibillion-dollar global industry. They invented a lofty brand name for Venice’s tap water — Acqua Veritas — created a sleek logo and emblazoned it on stylish carafes that were distributed free to households.
In terms of trash reduction, the campaign has already been a success, Venetian officials calculate, reducing the amount of plastic trash overall to 261 tons a month now from 288 tons a year ago.
