In what may be the first ban of its kind in the world, a rural Australian town has banned plastic water bottles.
Campaigners in Bundanoon (population 2,500) in New South Wales, were incensed after a beverage company proposed plans to tap an underground reservoir in the town, then bottle and sell the water.
Over 350 residents turned out to vote for the measure. Only 1 resident voted against the ban, along with a representative from the bottled water industry.
One campaigner, John Dee, told the BBC,
The company has been looking to extract water locally, bottle it in Sydney and bring it back here to sell it. It made people look at the environmental impact of bottled water and the community has been quite vocal about it.
We believe Bundanoon is the world’s first town that has got its retailers to ban bottled water. We haven’t found it anywhere else.
Now, all local businesses will stop selling plastic water bottles.
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The move was much celebrated by environmentalists, who pointed to the incredible amount of trash plastic water bottles create.
BBC reports that locals won’t be too harsh on tourists if they ignore the ban and bring their own plastic water bottles within city limits. But they’ll encourage them to fill reusable bottles from the town’s public water fountains.
The reusable bottles will bear the slogan “Bundy on Tap”.
New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees has also taken up the bottle-free cause. He ordered government departments to stop buying bottled water and switch to tap water.
Image: MadAboutCows on Flickr under a Creative Commons License.
A BAN ON PLASTIC BOTTLES!!! AWESOME!
BA pilot, me, tkng sabbatical Jan 2011 4 1 year. Wife aussie MEL. Done 2 X 30DC, doing ths 1 as well. lk Hard work but need contact in MEL
We all know disposable water bottles are wasteful and bad for the environment, yet their production is growing rapidly everywhere. Just 20 years ago the market for plastic water bottles was practically nonexistent, but today we produce billions of these completely unnecessary products. There can be only one sane response, plastic water bottles must be banned!
http://www.selfdestructivebastards.com/2009/10/water-bottle-manifesto.html
Anway, way to go Bundanoon, next step is to go national!
The boom in plastic water bottles has her especially frazzled because while the recycling rate is extremely low, the demand from recyclers is actually quite high.
A town has taken the unprecedented step of banning plastic water bottles.
Residents say the containers are bad for the environment and are taking their stance for ‘moral reasons’.
The decision was made yesterday at a public meeting in Bundanoon in Australia.
Instead of buying plastic bottles of water, anyone with a thirst will be encouraged to take a reusable container to a free water fountain in the high street.