The small Australian town of Bundanoon just set a new standard for sustainability by voting to do what no community has ever done before: ban bottled water! The measure was founded over concerns about the tremendous amount of resources used to extract, package, and transport bottled water, and it passed nearly unanimously in a town hall meeting. Will this be the beginning of a trend?
Although Bundanoon is a small community of about 2,500 residents, the decision to ban bottled water sets a great example for towns and cities around the world. The decision to ban bottled water began as a response to the desire of a bottling company to extract water from the town, take it to Sydney, and bring it back to the town to sell it. After the town learned of the environmental impacts of this cycle they decided to do something about it.
All the shops in the town agreed to the measure, and now instead of bottled water the town will install filtered water fountains so that people can fill their reusable bottles free of charge. The shops will sell these reusable containers to visitors coming to the town.
Via BBC News
no question it will be difficult to adjust to new measures but soon everyone will fellow when they see the big picture true
[...] now most of us recognize how wasteful plastic water bottles are — they create a lot of trash and unnecessarily drain our energy, resources, and wallets. [...]
Good for bundanoon!
Bottled water is big business – about $100 Billion globally. It’s going to take small steps like these to begin to restore the focus on municipal water systems. There’s a great rundown of the bottled water industry in the US over at economixt –
http://www.economixt.com/2009/07/in-context-the-bottled-water-industry
We need your support! Please sign our online petition!
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/ban-bottled-water-at-departments-and-facilities
TAP IN – a student led group in Surrey, British Columbia will be presenting to the Surrey Environmental Advisory Committee next week to convince Surrey to stop selling bottled water in municipal buildings.
Check out our website at: http://www.tap-in.ca
The potential problem I can see with this measure is that it will encourage people to drink sodas and other packaged sugary beverages. If a person stops at a convenience store for a cold drink and doesn’t have a refillable bottle on them, they’ll probably just choose a (cheap) can or bottle of soda instead of buying a new (more expensive) reusable bottle.