A story in the New Zealand Herald about Bundanoon, the tiny Australian town which has just banned the sale of commercially-bottled water.
The ban, which is believed to be a world-first, ensures that no commercially-bottled water can be sold – instead, residents can purchase reusable bottles and fill them up at free water fountains which have been built, or at shops for a small fee.
The initiative is aimed not only at saving the environment, but also saving money – and hence had very few nay-sayers when put to the vote.
An excerpt: (read in full here)
“Bottled water is widely viewed as an environmental menace because of the energy consumed in producing and transporting it, and because most bottles end up in landfill sites.
“A New South Wales government study found the industry was responsible for releasing 60,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2006.
“In recent years, dozens of local authorities in Britain and the US have stopped spending public money on bottled water but Bundanoon, population 2,000, is believed to be the first community to ban it completely.”