Australian town bans bottled water

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6665855.ece

Anne Barrowclough in Sydney

Until yesterday the town of Bundanoon (population 2,500) was best known as the host of Australias version of the Highland Games. Now it has become the worlds first place to ban bottled water.

At a public meeting last night its people agreed to back the ban, which will mean local businesses will stop selling bottled water and visitors will be discouraged from drinking it. Instead, they will be provided with bottles labelled Bundy on tap that can be refilled with water from taps and filtered water fountains on the main street.

Its a moral thing, said Huw Kingston, the owner of a coffee-and-bicycle shop who had already stopped selling bottled water. Its not easy to do when youre running a business in a small country town — a thousand dollars is a thousand dollars.

But the sale of still bottled water is a fantastic con by the beverage industry — convincing people to spend A$3.50 [£1.70] to buy essentially the water that comes out of a tap. Until recently it seemed that the worlds love affair with bottled water would never end.

Sales in Australia increased by 10 per cent last year, with Australians spending more than A $500 million on still and sparkling water.

This goes against the trend in the northern hemisphere, where sales have begun to fall.

In April Nestlé, whose brands include Perrier and San Pellegrino, nicknamed the champagne of waters, reported that sales of its water fell by 4.1 per cent in the first three months of the year, with Western Europe particularly badly hit. Sales of bottled water in Britain — which had rocketed from 30 million litres in 1980 to 1.3 billion litres in 2007 — fell by 9 per cent last year as consumers reacted to high prices and the environmental impact.

Millions of plastic bottles fill landfill sites and litter the oceans.

What went down the wrong way in Bundanoon was when the beverage company Norlex Holdings announced plans to tap an aquifer in the town and transport the water 120 miles to Sydney for bottling.

The proposal was turned down after residents objected — giving rise to the Bundy on tap movement. The company appealed and the case is awaiting a ruling.

Norlex wanted to truck millions of litres of water out of the bore here, stick it in bottles and bring it back to sell to us, said Mr Kingston. It became a big issue in this town.

John Dee, an environmental activist who was behind a ban on plastic bags in Tasmania, said: The main idea is to get people thinking about their usage of bottled water — environmentally, it makes no sense.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• police state
• eco-tyranny
• fluoride
• control

[TheJUNGLESURFER]

man is a frugivorous ape who should eat their water but so few know this

[Truetomyself100]

I wish they would ban it here, that bottled water is a danger to society :P

[GoCo77]

Environmentalists who think fluoridated water is safe need their heads read! That said, you'd be mad to drink water left in a plastic bottle in the sun.

[ihaveairlockers]

Have you seen the movie "Dr Strangelove" ??

Anyway, this video was paid for by Coke, because you can see the Mt Franklin water for sale and the Coke fridge in the clip.

All that will happen will be that tourists will go to the next town and stay there and buy their services.

Bundanoon loses.

Dumb idea.

[bluehachiroku]

Dumbest thing I ever did see. I like the shot of the Coke fridge in the background..

Flouride doesn't bother me.

As a tourist,we needed something fridge cold that could be resealed whilst driving around.. and we didn't have any glass bottles handy,so we went to Exeter and bought lunch and a few things there.

[eMASTAMA]

Australia towns ban

[KemoreJ]

Legislation has been passed to allow "producers" of bottled water to voluntarily put flouride into that water anyway.

[Grantoss22]

What Fuckheads!!!! I wonder if they will have flouride in the stuff "that comes out of the tap" what a great idea to set a precedent that the government hasn't thought of yet to get everyone on the water that the gov wants everyone drinking

[ppizzaaaaaaaaaaaa]

respect