Sep 18, 2019

Facebook issues ban on plastic water bottles in new offices

Photo: Chesnot/Getty Images

Facebook announced on Wednesday a ban on single-use plastic water bottles at its new global offices, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

The state of play: This appears to be the largest ban from a private employer, impacting the company's roughly 40,000 employees. The Big Tech company will instead offer water-filling stations in its employee cafeterias in Burlingame, San Francisco, Fremont and Sunnyvale, California, and will install filling stations in its existing Menlo Park headquarters.

What they're saying:

"It's really about us thinking about our sustainability goals ... and being a good corporate steward."

— Juan Salazar, Facebook's director of local policy and community engagement

Activists argue plastic water bottles are wasteful and increase pollution through both repeated production and disposal.

Of note: The ban comes just 1 month after San Francisco International Airport banned single-use plastic bottles as well.

Go deeper: Special report: Our plastic planet

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Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Global: Total confirmed cases as of 5 p.m. ET: 6,804,044 — Total deaths: 362,678 — Total recoveries — 2,788,806 — Map.
U.S.: Total confirmed cases as of 5 p.m. ET: 1,909,077 — Total deaths: 109,497 — Total recoveries: 491,706 — Total tested: 19,231,444 — Map.
Public health: Why the pandemic is hitting minorities harder — Coronavirus curve rises in Florida — How racism threatens the response to the pandemic — Some people are drinking and inhaling cleaning products in attempt to fight the virus.
Tech: The pandemic is accelerating next-generation disease diagnostics — Robotics looks to copy software-as-a-service model.
Business: Budgets busted by coronavirus make it harder for cities to address inequality — Sports, film production in California to resume June 12 after 3-month hiatus.
Education: Students and teachers flunked remote learning.

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George Floyd updates

Protesters in Washington, D.C. on June 6. Photo: Samuel Corum/Getty Images

Thousands of demonstrators are gathering in cities across the U.S. and around the world to protest the killing of George Floyd. Huge crowds have assembled in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Chicago for full-day events.

Why it matters: Twelve days of nationwide protest in the U.S. has built pressure for states to make new changes on what kind of force law enforcement can use on civilians and prompted officials to review police conduct.

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Why the coronavirus pandemic is hitting minorities harder

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photo: Mark Makela/Getty Images

The coronavirus’ disproportionate impact on black and Latino communities has become a defining part of the pandemic.

The big picture: That's a result of myriad longstanding inequities within the health care system and the American economy.

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