Photo: James MeyerAn Australian rural town has become the first community in the world to ban the sale of plastic bottled water.
It has instead been decided to sell reusable "Bundy on Tap" bottles that can be refilled for free with chilled, filtered water. The local council is installing filtered water fountains on the main street so that people can fill bottles for free.
When Bundanoon's businesses' announced their decision to discard bottled water from their shelves from September, around 400 people gathered there approved it.
What caused this ban was the move by a Sydney-based company, Norlex Hodings, to build a water extraction plant in the town, which has a population of around 2500 people and is 120 km southwest of Sydney. When the move was rejected, the company appealed to the Land and Environment Court.
"Why should we let a company take our water to Sydney, only to bring it back in plastic bottles to be sold for 300 times the cost of tap water,” said Bundy On Tap co-ordinator Huw Kingston
According to Sydney Morning Herald, the bottled water industry released 60,000metric tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in 2006.
Environment activists say huge amounts of resources are wasted to extract and package water in plastic bottles, which in turn end up as litter or go into landfill sites, causing huge damage to the environment.
It has instead been decided to sell reusable "Bundy on Tap" bottles that can be refilled for free with chilled, filtered water. The local council is installing filtered water fountains on the main street so that people can fill bottles for free.
When Bundanoon's businesses' announced their decision to discard bottled water from their shelves from September, around 400 people gathered there approved it.
What caused this ban was the move by a Sydney-based company, Norlex Hodings, to build a water extraction plant in the town, which has a population of around 2500 people and is 120 km southwest of Sydney. When the move was rejected, the company appealed to the Land and Environment Court.
"Why should we let a company take our water to Sydney, only to bring it back in plastic bottles to be sold for 300 times the cost of tap water,” said Bundy On Tap co-ordinator Huw Kingston
According to Sydney Morning Herald, the bottled water industry released 60,000metric tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in 2006.
Environment activists say huge amounts of resources are wasted to extract and package water in plastic bottles, which in turn end up as litter or go into landfill sites, causing huge damage to the environment.
According to Sydney Morning Herald, the bottled water industry released 60,000metric tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in 2006. James L. Martin
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