The Poison We Pay For: As Federal Budget Cuts Slash Public Water, Big Plastic Wins
Federal cuts to drinking water programs and regulations will further erode trust in tap water, worsening water inequity and the plastic pollution crisis.
As the Trump administration works to finalize next year’s budget, we must pay attention to funds for drinking water. The currently proposed federal funding cuts will weaken the ability of public water systems to ensure safe water, diminish trust in tap water, and increase business for plastic bottled water—the de facto response when water systems falter.
But what could be more important than access to clean water? To some industries, it seems the answer is profit—especially for Big Plastic.
Water is essential for all life, and access to safe drinking water is an internationally recognized human right. To deny water is to deny health.
It is critical that funding be redirected into public drinking water systems, away from corporate handouts and privatization of our precious freshwater resources.
President Donald Trump says his administration wants “really clean water.” However, it’s difficult to see how dismantling Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation and capacity, rolling back federal clean water protections, and drastically cutting drinking water infrastructure will lead to anything but the pollution of billions of single-use plastic bottles, increased threats to public health, and worsening water injustice.
The White House’s fiscal year 2026 budget plans to slash funding for the Clean and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds by nearly 90%. This funding is the primary source of federal support for water infrastructure across the nation, and has been underfunded for decades. In fact, these new proposed cuts layer onto a near 80% decline in investment in public water systems between 1977 and 2017, which has left many Americans exposed to aging and insufficient infrastructure, and at times, unsafe water. It also doesn’t make good economic sense: Estimates show the proposed cuts will result in the loss of 38,622 American jobs and $6.47 billion in economic output.
Enter: Big Plastic
In the United States, federal cuts will leave state and local governments trying to pick up the tab. Water systems have already raised water rates to cover existing funding gaps, causing a deepening water affordability crisis, only made worse by increasing water privatization. High water rates result in mounting household water debts and shut offs—a practice United Nations experts consider a violation of human rights.
Water insecurity only deepens our reliance on the manufactured “savior” to these crises: plastic packaged water. When the ability of water systems to do proper maintenance and infrastructure improvement is undermined, and communities can’t reliably access or trust safe water coming from the tap, they often turn to or are pushed onto bottled water.
Nearly 90% of Americans consume some bottled water, and 20% consume only bottled water. Bottled water is big business; in fact, it’s the most consumed beverage in the U.S. and worldwide. Globally, more than 1 million plastic bottles are sold every minute, and around 600 billion plastic bottles are produced every year. The global revenue of bottled water is projected to surge to $509.18 billion by 2030, up from $372.70 billion in 2025. The U.S. contributes the largest share of this market.
Central to the bottled water industry’s profiteering is fear mongering about tap water.
Despite having some of the overall highest quality tap water in the world, disinvestment in public drinking water infrastructure and deregulation has led some U.S. communities to have valid concerns about the safety of their public water. Over 9.2 million households still have toxic lead pipes bringing water to their taps, and nearly half of the U.S. has PFAS contaminating their water. These crises, as well as other safe drinking water violations, disproportionately occur in low-income, rural, Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities.
But the plastic bottled water industry explicitly targets these communities with advertisement campaigns and exploits drinking water crises for profit by mythologizing their product as a “safe solution” as opposed to the regrettable replacement it is in many circumstances.
First myth: bottled water is the safer, purer option.
Bottled water does not face the same health standards as tap water. Companies are required to test their water quality far less frequently than public water systems. And while public water systems always have to notify the public when there is a drinking water violation, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulates bottled water as a food product, does not have this same requirement to inform consumers about contamination and recalls. Staff cuts at the FDA threaten to further weaken the enforcement of bottled water regulations.
Moreover, nearly two-thirds of plastic bottled water is repackaged tap water. The plastic bottles then add to that water toxic chemicals that can leach from the bottle itself, including PFAS and other endocrine-disrupting chemicals. It should come as no surprise that the amount of microplastics in bottled water is far higher than in tap water.
Second myth: Bottled water is inexpensive.
Bottled water is not affordable, costing households hundreds to thousands of times more per year than tap water, and further entrenching wealth disparities. In emergencies, municipalities and residents seeking an alternative water supply are often subject to price gouging for plastic bottles. Low-income communities with poor infrastructure are the least trusting of tap water and most reliant on bottled, paying more for an inferior commodity than wealthier households pay for a safe tap. Budget cuts will deepen water insecurity and lead more people to bottled water use.
Third myth: bottled water is sustainable and recyclable.
Ninety-nine percent of plastics are made from fossil fuels, plunging the planet deeper into the climate crisis. Communities on the frontlines and fencelines of fossil fuel extraction, plastic production, and landfill and incineration sites are recurrently exposed to highly toxic chemicals and polluted air, soil, and water. Plastic production itself requires a massive amount of water, both for the extraction of oil and for the cooling of plastic pellets. And bottlers are drying up local groundwater resources. Overall, an estimated 2,000 times more energy is needed to produce bottled water than to supply tap water.
And those bottles never go away. Municipalities have to pay massive sums to deal with plastic bottle pollution and the few bottles that are reclaimed. Plastic bottles most often end up in landfills or incinerators, are shipped overseas under the guise of “recycling” only to be dumped and open-burned, leading to further serious pollution, injustice, and greenhouse gas emissions. In all cases, plastic bottles—like all plastics—break up into micro- and nanoplastics, polluting our bodies and environment.
The bottled water industry is undermining safe public drinking water infrastructure and investment everywhere. According to 2016 estimates, it would take less than half of global annual bottled water sales to ensure safe drinking water supply across the world.
Federal cuts to drinking water programs and regulations will further erode trust in tap water, worsening water inequity and the plastic pollution crisis. It is critical that funding be redirected into public drinking water systems, away from corporate handouts and privatization of our precious freshwater resources.
Call your senators and representatives to oppose these proposed cuts to drinking water infrastructure and ensure the human right to public, safe water is protected.
