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Australia town bans bottled water

A rural town in Australia has voted overwhelmingly to ban the sale of bottled water over concerns about its environmental impact.

Campaigners say Bundanoon, in New South Wales, may be the first community in the world to have such a ban.

They say huge amounts of resources are used to extract, package and transport bottled water.

The discarded plastic bottles then end up as litter or go into landfill sites, the "Bundy on Tap" campaign says.

More than 350 residents turned out to vote at the public meeting in the town hall.

Only one resident voted against the ban, along with a representative from the bottled water industry, ABC news reported.

The BBC's Nick Bryant in Sydney says locals have promised not to set upon visitors if they ignore the ban, but they will be encouraged to fill a reusable container from water fountains in the main street.

The reusable bottles will bear the slogan "Bundy on Tap".

Campaigner John Dee said local opinion had been incensed when a drinks company announced plans to tap an underground reservoir in the town.

Environmental impact

"The company has been looking to extract water locally, bottle it in Sydney and bring it back here to sell it," he said.

"It made people look at the environmental impact of bottled water and the community has been quite vocal about it."

The ban has been supported by shopkeepers in the town, which has a population of about 2,500.

"We believe Bundanoon is the world's first town that has got its retailers to ban bottled water," said Mr Dee. "We haven't found it anywhere else."

New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees has backed the cause, ordering government departments to stop buying bottled water and use tap water instead.

Mr Rees says it will save taxpayers money and help the environment.

Nickswitz wrote:Yeah, we all know how well that works...

As much as I used to disagree with this point of view, the only way to enforce a law, is to punish those who don't do it, I mean, they give you 5 cents for every bottle you recycle here and there are still bottles all over the ground.

So yes Lighthawk, if you could enforce it, that would be a good idea, but we have incentives and fines and everything, and nonetheless it doesn't work, people won't do it if they don't want to. Simple as that.

And as for Teaos, apparently everyone voted for it to happen, so if it's what they want to do, and they can get it to happen, its a great thing, less pollution, but on any larger a scale, it would never work.

Mikey wrote:Besides, 350 people probably represent 88% of the population of Flyspeck, or whatever that town was called. They're sure gonna change the world now that they've regulated against 0.00000000000000000000001% of the world's plastic...

Nickswitz wrote:Yeah, I totally would have noticed had there not been an article, point is, sure it works on a small scale, but on any larger a scale, it would most likely fail, miserably.