Prohibit selling bottled water to protect the environment

Most people in an Australian town voted in favor of the ban on bottled water sales yesterday, fearing their negative impact on the environment.

Environmental activists claim, treating Bundanoon town in New South Wales will become the first community in the world to ban bottled water sales. People here say companies use too much resources to refine, bottle and transport water bottles. In addition, the destruction or recycling of discarded plastic bottles costs a lot of money.

More than 350 of the 2,500 townspeople went to town hall to vote on the ban on selling bottled water last night. A representative of a beverage company presented to the crowd to protect the water bottles, but only one person voted against the ban.

Bundanoon stores display the slogan of a campaign to ban bottled water sales.(Photo: SMH)

Local police will not punish visitors or people from other places if they bring bottled water, but will encourage them to reuse plastic bottles instead of throwing them somewhere in town. John Dee, an environmental activist, said Bundanoon residents began boycotting bottled water after a beverage company exploited the town's groundwater and brought it to Sydney to bottled. Then they bring products to Bundanoon for sale.

" The company's actions make people understand that they just need to boil water and put it in bottles, not buy bottled water. Then they start to pay more attention to the impact of plastic bottles on the environment. " Dee added.

The ban is the idea of ​​Huw Kingston, owner of a bicycle shop. Kingston is happy that his idea becomes a reality, but is surprised that most people support him. Even the owners of beverage shops agreed with that policy.

Mr. Huw Kingston (red shirt) , who launched a campaign to fight bottled water, and environmental activists in Bundanoon town. (Photo: Sydney Morning Herald)

Immediately after the vote in Bundanoon town, Mr. Nathan Ree, the governor of New South Wales, also asked all state authorities to stop buying bottled water. " We want to stay away from bottled water because of adverse environmental impacts caused by discarded bottles, " he said.

Bottled water is considered one of the products that negatively impacts ecosystems and wastes resources. In the US every year, people spend 11 billion USD to buy about 30 billion liters of bottled water. Scientists calculate that the world must spend 1.5 million barrels of oil to produce water bottles every year. In addition, the amount of water that people use in the process of producing bottles is twice the amount of water in the bottle.