Australian town bans bottled waterA small Australian town has become the first in the world to ban bottled water.
Bundanoon, a pretty rural town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales agreed the move at a public meeting today.
Businesses in the town of 2,500 people will stop selling bottled water and visitors will be discouraged from drinking it. Instead, they will be provided with bottles labelled with the slogan "Bundy on tap" that can be re-filled with tap water.
Retailers in the town — until now best known for hosting an Australian version of the Scottish Highland Games, entitled Brigadoon — say they are behind the move despite facing a substantial loss of income from water sales.
Huw Kingston, the owner of a local café who has already stopped selling still bottled water, said that residents wanted to combat the carbon footprint associated with bottling water, although he admitted to The Times: "It's not an easy thing to do when you're running a business in a small country town. A thousand dollars is a thousand dollars."
However, Mr Kingston, who started the campaign to ban bottled water from Bundanoon added: "It's a moral thing. The sale of still bottled water is a fantastic con job by the beverage industry It's been a wonderful marketing job, convincing people to spend A$3.50 to buy essentially the water that comes out of a tap."
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