Mullumbimby Action Group -> moviechannel -> bundanoon_bottled

The Mouse that Roared: Bundanoon Bans Bottled Water

Small communities can be the birth of big things! The New South Wales Southern Highlands town of Bundanoon voted this week to ban the sale of bottled water. The community voted overwhelmingly this week to ban the bottle!. The town will install filtered water fountains so people can drink or fill up their own containers.

The 'Bundy on tap' campaign was suggested by Bundanoon businessman, Huw Kingston, after a company applied to pump water out of a local aquifer to supply the bottled market.

"I put a little article, 'Does Bundanoon have the bottle to go bottled-water-free?' in our local newsletter," he said and  "I guess we have gone on from there."

Environmentalist Jon Dee from activist group Do Something  said "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.  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."

Mr Dee, who was behind the campaign that saw plastic bags banned in the Tasmanian town of Coles Bay, says other towns around the country would not find it hard to follow Bundanoon's lead.

Now the State Government has got onto the band(bottle) wagon. The NSW  Premier Nathan Rees has ordered all State Government departments and agencies to stop buying bottled water.

A Small Town CAN Have Big Effect

This goes to show that even a small town less than half the size of Mullumbimby can have a big effect on the world. We can take heart that this idea has so dramatically taken off  once a small group brought it into being.

Mullumites take heart from this and see that our seemly small efforts can be very powerful. We just need to think out of the box and keep up the good work. Ban the bottle this week and   watch Woolworths leave next!!

PS:  Would Woolworths "ban the Bottle".