Australian Town First to Ban Bottled Water

Kudos to Bundanoon for banning bottled water! Let's hope many more follow!

Link to Article

An Australian town pulled all bottled water from its shelves Saturday and replaced it with refillable bottles in what is believed to be a world-first ban.

Hundreds of people marched through the picturesque rural town of Bundanoon to mark the first day of its bottled water ban by unveiling a series of new public drinking fountains, said campaign spokesman John Dee. Shopkeepers ceremoniously removed the last bottles of water from their shelves and replaced them with reusable bottles that can be filled from fountains inside the town's shops or at water stations in the street.

"Every bottle today was taken off the shelf and out of the fridges so you can only now buy refillable bottles in shops in Bundanoon," Dee told AFP.

The tiny town, two hours south of Sydney, voted in July to ban bottled water after a drinks company moved to tap into a local aquifer for its bottled water business. "In the process of the campaign against that the local people became educated about the environmental impact of bottled water," said Dee. "A local retailer came up with this idea of well why don't we do something about that and actually stop selling the bottled water and it got a favourable reaction," he said.

...

Activists say bottling water causes unnecessary use of plastics and fuel for transport. A New South Wales study found that in 2006, the industry was responsible for releasing 60,000 tonnes of gases blamed for global warming.  

Comments

[Robert Waddell]

I don't understand the decision to ban bottle water as a viable solution to the problems of plastic in our environment. I do understand that water flows from the tap at a very economical and environmentally friendly rate. But do you consider at all that soda, sport / energy drinks, and even beer are all made of almost 99% bottled water. And yes, all are available in plastic bottles. Banning bottled water in your community is a very narrow approach at solving the larger problem. If people select bottled water as their beverage of choice instead of soda pop or a sports drink (both are bottled water with sugar, sodium, dyes, preservatives, stabilizers, other good stuff) it's their RIGHT. Telling people they have to go to the tap to select a healthier beverage option does nothing to help solve the issue. Not every community is fortunate enough to have access to Sierra Nevada runoff as their watershed. Some communities pull their water from rivers and lakes that even when refined to City, State and FDA standards still leave a flavor and/or oder that is not favored by the consumer (ever drank the water in a St. Louis hotel room? Not taste at all, smells of fish). So the consumer selects a healthier bottled beverage option with a flavor and oder they prefer. All on their own free will.

But not in Bundanoon...

Communities need to deal with the actual issue and ban or limit the use of plastic. Not what is sold in the container.

[Frank]

While banning bottled water is not the end-all solution, I won’t shed a tear for those in Bundanoon (and it doesn’t sound like they will either). The primary reasons people site for buying bottled water is health and convenience. The quality of bottled water is very questionable. In fact, most bottled water is simply filtered tap water. Leaching issues aside, tests have shown that in many cases, tap water is cleaner. And I would argue that convenience is more a case of laziness.

The amount of plastic generated from bottled water waste could be drastically reduced if people made some simple (and easy) decisions to drink tap water or filtered tap water vs bottled water. A filter is a much more environmentally friendly and less expensive option than buying bottled water, which, as you may know, costs more per gallon than gasoline!

To you point on water quality, New York City, a long distance from the Bay Area and the Sierra water source, has some of the best water in the country. Clean tap water in not something only Bay Area residents enjoy. And if you still don’t trust the quality of your tap water, just buy a filter. I don’t need a beverage company to filter my water for me and then charge me $2-$3 for a bottle.

[Robert Waddell]

I agree that the Bay Area and New York City have excellent watershed and water treatment facilities resulting in a quality product... But not in St. Louis... Stinky Water!!!

If people have concerns about the quality of bottle water they need to contact the FDA (they manage bottle water). If they have questions about the quality of tap water they need to contact the EPA Office of Ground Water. Bottle water companies that draw water from a municipality are actually more regulated than tap water (first EPA and then FDA). If there is a issue of plastic chemicals leaching from the container into the product it would not just be isolated to bottled water. That would be a larger issue that would need to be addressed by the FDA.

I don't think people who drink bottle water are necessarily lazy. I do agree that as the packaging gets smaller for the consumer the connivence and waste factor increases. I would prefer that people who drink bottled water use a larger format such as a returnable/refillable 5 gallon bottle over an 6oz package. I would also prefer people drink draft beer out of a 25 gallon keg over 16oz plastic longnecks. But again the consumer selects the option that is more convenient for them sometimes and that's not always the best environmental option. It's an educational issue more than anything.

Yes, banning bottled water will reduce the amount of bottle water waste (that's by default). It may even reduce the amount of plastic consumed in the marketplace but only for a short time. The consumers will just take one step to the right and grab a ice cold soda, sports drink or one of the possible thousands of other beverage option all sold in plastic and made primarily of filtered water.

The people who filter their water or carry water with them from home do it because they understand that plastics in our environment is of great concern to them. This is what happens when you educate consumers on techniques that reduce waste. Telling people they don't have the option to purchase a 16oz bottle of water that sits next to a 16 oz bottle of soda made almost totally of filtered water does not eliminate plastic.

No one ever gets charged for bottle water they chose to pay for it. I like choices...

But not in Bundanoon...

P.S. Could you post an opinion on Christmas Tree Farms. I think it's a good environmental topic that fits the season.