Town that Banned Bottled Water Will Save Millions

By Rich Bowden

Img: Plastic bottles. Credit: Shazari/flickr

The southern New South Wales town of Bundanoon, which found itself on the world map recently by banning the sale of bottled water, (see story here) is set to benefit by up to $A2.5 million, according to a well-known environmental campaigner.

Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), "Clean Up Australia" environmental chairman Ian Kiernan said the southern highlands township of Bundanoon would benefit financially from being the first community in the world to ban bottled water at a vote taken at a town meeting earlier this month.

Calling it a "sign of things to come" Kiernan said: "Bundanoon's move is a sign of things to come ... communities are going to start taking matters into their own hands," he said.

The ABC quoted Clean Up Australia as saying people can save up to $A1,000 a year by using tap water instead of bottled water and save in carbon emissions.

"The manufacture of every tonne of PET [polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle production] produces around three tonnes of carbon dioxide," he said.

"Australians purchase about 118,000 tonnes of plastic drink bottles a year but only recycle 35 per cent of them," he said.

"The 76,700 tonnes left behind either goes to landfill or ends up in our environment as rubbish."


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NSW Town Believed to be First in World to Ban Bottled Water

By Rich Bowden

Img: Plastic Bottles. Credit: Shazari/flickr

The New South Wales Southern Highlands town of Bundanoon has been thrust on the world stage as possibly the first to ban the sale of bottled water.Residents voted overwhelmingly to ban the use of environmentally damaging plastic bottled water in favour of reusable plastic bottles which can be filled up at designated water fountains in the town.

The campaign, known as "Bundy on Tap" in the small town of 2.5 thousand people south of Sydney, has attracted international attention with leader of the campaign, local bike shop owner Huw Kingston, telling the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that he had agreed to at least 70 interviews after the announcement yesterday, including requests from international news outlets such as the BBC and Japanese television.

"To have that international coverage certainly took me a little bit by surprise and I'm pretty amazed that I'm still able to talk," he said.

Environmentalist John Dee told the ABC's AM program he believed the town may be the first in the world to ban bottled water.

"Huge amounts of resources are used to extract, bottle and transport that bottled water and much of the package ends up as litter or landfill," he said. "So environmentally it makes no sense and that is what we are trying to do in Bundanoon, is show that a community can live without single use bottled water."

Dee said that Bundanoon could well set an example for the rest of Australia.

"If Bundanoon can ban bottled water, well many other towns and communities around Australia will also consider their usage of bottled water and at the very least, if they don't ban it then at least they will reduce their usage of it," he continued.

"And in doing so reduce the half a billion dollars a year that Australians are spending on bottled water and not just save money but save the environment too."

The idea has already been taken up by the NSW state Government with Premier Nathan Rees announcing yesterday a ban on the purchase of bottled water by all State Government departments and agencies.

Premier Rees said the move would save taxpayer dollars as well as reduce environmental impact.

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