Australian town bans bottled water sales

In the U.S., bottle water has been attributed as a cause for increasing tooth decay in children. Unlike bottled water, tap water in the U.S. is fluorinated.

Taka

In the U.S., bottle water has been attributed as a cause for increasing tooth decay in children. Unlike bottled water, tap water in the U.S. is fluorinated.

The water is only treated in certain parts, many are still forced to drink well water which may contain lead among other heavy metals. Plus fluorinated water has a wretched aftertaste, but that's just my personal preferance.

And I don't know what other people are seeing but when I read this artical the site had an advertisement for Fiji water immediatly under the artical.

Most bottled water in the U.S is just tap water, there's no legal requirement to tell you where the water is from or how/if it was treated at all. Funny enough, some of them do have an ingredients list, though. My one biggest issue with bottled water is the sheer waste of plastic, which takes generations to decompose, if it does decompose at all. It's easier, cheaper and more environmentally friendly to just carry a thermos around with you, a lot of them even come with straps so you can just put it on like a purse or backpack. I have a super kawaii bottle that's light pink I found in the states, it goes everywhere I go. Considering the lack of trash cans, it helps a lot. Kudos to this Australian town for taking a stand against these abusive corporations, it's ridiculous when we let companies get away with this kind of nonsense. Why let them steal your water and sell it back to you for a profit?

What if the tap water in your town tastes bad?

"What if the tap water in your town tastes bad"?

Drink more beer!

Bundanoon is a really nice part of the world. Went there a couple of times back in the '70s as a kid. These days, however, I have heard it has become a bit of yuppie retreat.

Drinking water? What a disgusting thing to do, wash in it yes, but drink the stuff? Never.

By the way, 356 ( minus 2 ) out of 2500, now that’s not what I would call democracy.

It's good to see grass-roots democracy at work.

They must be communists!

Tap water in some locations is undrinkable. You can get around the flouride problem with flouride tablets. (Well water, on the other hand can be just fine.)

I'm not buying the "bottled water is just tap water in a bottle" line. I can taste the difference. If you can't, well, good for you. And the whole bottled water is evil thing is asinine.

Sounds more like pressure from utilities companies than anything else. The demand for tap water, especially in a hot summer country (now it's winter, I know) will increase exponentially with such bans, and water bills will rise.

A 600 ml plastic bottle takes 200 ml of oil to make. That's a lot of oil. Nice work, this town. By the way, 356 ( minus 2 ) out of 2500, now that’s not what I would call democracy. This makes little sense. It's like saying Obama shouldn't be Prez because lots of people were too lazy to vote and he got less than half the possible votes. If you don't turn out to meetings or vote, don't whine about it, it's your choice.

A 600 ml plastic bottle takes 200 ml of oil to make. That's a lot of oil.

True, however a lot of plastic makers are switching over to corn based plastics. It functions the same way but we can produce a neigh infinate ammount of it and it degrades much faster than conventional plastic.

man, Japan uses way too many PeT bottles. I bought a really good filter and have been using the same water bottles for a long time. I started this mainly for economic reasons as I drink a lot of water through out the day. This office alone probably goes through more of these bottles a day than this little town does in a year.

smith, without giving any details, you do know you can clean rain water, even in Tokyo, with special filters and storage units, but at the moment, we only have industrial types. There are ways to harvest the rain water, clean it and you'll get some clean water to drink and with the amount of rain we have in Tokyo, you can save a lot. Also, if any of of you use those dehumidifiers in your house, a typical summer day can produce a lot in Tokyo house, you do know you can use that water on your bodies and as well as your laundry!

We have been using the same plastic bottles over and over. It means a trip to the magic source every so often, but I am quite happy. Use it for making ice, making coffee and tea and for cooking, etc.

smithinJapan - "Sounds more like pressure from utilities companies than anything else. The demand for tap water, especially in a hot summer country (now it's winter, I know) will increase exponentially with such bans, and water bills will rise."

I'm not so sure. Did you catch that news a couple of months back about the tap water in ..was it LA? It was tested and found to contain a cocktail of chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs that people had been flushing down the toilet and that had been recyclled by state utilities into drinking water.

skipthesong - "smith, without giving any details, you do know you can clean rain water, even in Tokyo, with special filters and storage units. There are ways to harvest the rain water, clean it and you'll get some clean water to drink and with the amount of rain we have in Tokyo, you can save a lot. Also, if any of of you use those dehumidifiers in your house, a typical summer day can produce a lot in Tokyo house, you do know you can use that water on your bodies and as well as your laundry!"

Can you provide some details, esp. about rain water harvesters and filters. I am looking around for this stuff right now.

Any links would be apreciated.

Thanks in advance.

sushi,

look, I'll give you this for now http://www.bio-expo.jp/english/

If you are in Tokyo, you got a lot of problems. The same is with Solar products too.

Thanks Skip, much appreciated. :-)

sushi, Japan, I am finding is a rough place for things like this. You can't just put up a solar panel or even a water harvesting system on your own property without having to pay certain fees to you local city office not to mention the wait you have to go through. Don't get the proper paperwork in place, and you are looking at heavy fines. I know first hand....

Oz is a much better place in this area. West Oz is so far ahead.. too bad I missed that boat.