WORD OUT! The Blog to Build a New Society

Just 400 people in a small Australian town have spurred a nation into action and started a global conversation. In Bundanoon, New South Wales, 400 people attended a town hall meeting – and voted 398 to 2 to ban the sale of bottled water in their town. The initiative, called “Bundy on Tap,” is the brainchild of local bike shop and cafe owner, Huw Kingston. In support of the campaign, the local council is installing filtered water drinking fountains on the main street so people can fill their own bottles for free.

For several years, the community has been fighting a Sydney-based company’s proposal to build a water extraction plant in the town. "If the water is good enough for a company to bottle and sell -- why not just drink it?" thought the locals. Kingston said, "Why should we let a company take our water to Sydney, only to bring it back in bottles to be sold for 300 times the cost of tap water?”

Response to the vote has been rapid. On Thursday, NSW Premier Nathan Rees announced an immediate ban on all departments and agencies buying bottled water, including supplies for water coolers. Peter Garrett, the Federal Environment Minister (previously frontman for the activist rock band Midnight Oil) encouraged state governments to consider banning bottled water across the country. "Quite clearly we're having a really important, pretty healthy debate about the value of bottled water," he stated.

I can still remember laughing when the first bottles of water appeared on the shelves, incredulous that anyone would ever pay for something you can drink for free. It feels great to see people questioning this mass marketing of part of the global commons and hopefully putting a stop to the production of all that plastic. The swift response to the Bundanoon vote, and the concrete actions taken so immediately are truly inspiring!