Bottled Water to Go - AWAY

New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees has ordered all State Government departments and agencies to stop buying bottled water, following swiftly on plans for a small-town ban.

Bundanoon, in the NSW Southern Highlands, is set to become the first community in Australia to ban the sale of bottled water. And Government agencies seem set to also ban its use, with a partial ban already operating in Ministers' offices.

"We're asking government departments to phase it out unless there is obvious and practical commonsense reasons not to in the event someone doesn't have cool water in a hot environment," said the Premier. He says the move will save taxpayer money and help reduce the impact on the environment of producing and throwing away plastic bottles. A public campaign to discourage the use of bottled water by the wider community is also planned.

Residents in Bundanoon are meanwhile preparing to vote on their town's plan to ban local shops from selling plastic bottles of water at a community meeting tonight. Local businesses in the town of 2,500 people are proposing to replace the bottles with reusables and then offer directions to filtered water fountains that will be installed on the main street, calling it 'Bundy on tap'. It is likely there will be widespread support for the plan.

In Bundanoon "... there is an overwhelming opposition to the marketing scam that is stilled bottled water," with other cities around the world taxing bottled water and putting in place measures similar to those of the NSW Government.

Environmentalist Jon Dee from activist group Do Something believes Bundanoon could be the first town in the world to ban bottled water entirely. "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. "Environmentally, it makes no sense and... what we are trying to do in Bundanoon is show that a community can live without single-use bottled water." "If Bundanoon can ban bottled water, many other towns and communities around Australia will also consider their usage of bottled water," he said.

"At the very least, if they don't ban it, then at least they will reduce their usage of it and in doing so, reduce the half-a-billion dollars a year that Australians are spending on bottled water."
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I find that living in a hot environment makes drinking water during the day very necessary, especially if working outside, but with most of Australia having very reasonable water supplies produced by local utilities, the use of bottled water is crazy, and VERY expensive. It would be normal to take water from home, at most times, and keep it in a soft cooler, so it is cool to drink - not necessarily very cold. I even freeze it in 3L bottles for work use outside and to do double duty as a freezer brick in the esky. Great option and commonly used. Why buy water??

I have no issue with bottled water in Bali for example where local water supplies are commonly of poor quality for drinking. But in many parts of Asia today, tap water is just fine for drinking, with Singapore and Kuala Lumpur good examples.

Bottled water in Australia is both expensive and dubiously superior to tap water.

Reducing or banning the trendy use of purchased single use bottled water is a good idea!!!!