A press release from the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum:

CHANHASSEN - Beginning June 1, the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum will discontinue sales of bottled water in its restaurant and on its grounds.

Instead, visitors will be offered a free (compostable) cup for filling with clean, filtered tap water widely available at the Arboretum. The gift store and restaurant will also sell reusable plastic water bottles (for roughly the price of a Dasani). Visitors also will be encouraged to bring their own refillable water containers from home.

“This is a bold move and a big change, but the time has come. The consumption of drinking water in disposable plastic bottles is a convenience that we as a society can no longer afford. Future generations will pay the price of our ‘throwaway’practices,” said Mary Meyer, interim director of the Chanhassen-based public garden.

“It is only fitting that we take this important step in June to coincide with the opening of our summer exhibition Waterosity: Go Green With a Splash, which celebrates fresh thinking about the value of water and its vital relationship to people and plants,” she added.

In fact, one of the exhibition’s 10 juried art installations – “Take Back the Tap” – powerfully addresses the environmental consequences of plastic water bottles. This jumbo “walk-through” water bottle will convey an unforgettable message that visitors young and old will take to heart.

Here are some sobering statistics:

- Only 20 percent of plastic water bottles are ever recycled.

- It takes more than 300 years for plastic bottles to decompose in landfills.

- Americans have an insatiable appetite for bottled water. In 2006, the manufacture of water bottles for Americans required more than 17 million barrels of oil – enough to fuel more than 1 million U.S. cars for a year.

The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, encompassing 1,137 acres of display gardens, plant collections, prairie and woods, is the largest public garden in the Upper Midwest. It is open daily from 8 a.m. to sunset; gate admission is $7 for adults and free for members and youths ages 15 and younger. It is located 9 miles west of Interstate 494 on State Highway 5 in Chanhassen. For information, visit www.arboretum.umn.edu or call 952-443-1400.

The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is part of the University of Minnesota College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences. It is a community and national resource for horticultural and environmental information, research, and public education. The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity employer and educator. The Arboretum is disability accessible; the buildings & terraces are smoke free.