Focus on Bottled Water Moves From Bundanoon to Buckingham Palace
The small Australian town of Bundanoon is credited with having started the resistance to bottled water, that has now through an initiative by Thames Water, reached as far as Buckingham Palace.
What’s Driving This?
Ever since
- it became clear that the energy input to bottled water could be visualised as a bottle a quarter full of crude oil
- it was shown that the energy required to produce bottled water is 2000 times that to produce tap water
- Watkiss revealed that England imported 20,000 litres ( 5,500 gallons) of water from Australia but at the same time exported 20,000 litres of British water to Australia
- Australia suffered a drought that was so severe than it drove many farmers off the land
there was little doubt that things would start to happen.Bundy on Tap
Bundanoon (Bundy) is a town of around 2,500 people in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia that was a booming tourist destination with 68 guest houses early in the 20th century. It has retained its village atmosphere and today plays host to a number of festivals and events so that tourism is still the lifeblood of the town.
The “Bundy on Tap” movement started when a soft drinks company, Norlex secured the right to extract water from the aquifer on which Bundanoon sits and to transport it to Sidney, 160 km (100 miles) away, for bottling. Residents were not happy with this for the effect on their town, the loss of water from their aquifer during a serious drought and more generally the environmental impact of bottled water.Following communication with businesses in the town and a meeting with the community it was decided to ban the sale of bottled mineral water in the town. Visitors are allowed to bring bottled water, but are encouraged to use refillable bottles with purified water springs that have been installed in the streets. The reusable bottles will bear the slogan “Bundy on Tap”.
Their actions are supported by NSW Premier Nathan Rees who has announced an immediate ban on all NSW government departments and agencies buying bottled water and they have succeeded in getting the activities of Norlex limited to only two small trucks a day.
Meanwhile at the other end of the world Thames Water has delivered its Tap Top water carafe to Buckingham Palace as part of their “London on Tap” Initiative.
London on Tap and the Tap Top Carafe
In early 2008, the Mayor of London and Thames Water launched a project aimed at promoting the use of tap water in place of bottled mineral water. The London On Tap initiative aims to:
- Raise awareness of the high quality of London’s tap water, the impact of bottled water on climate change and the environment, and its benefits to health and well-being
- Empower customers in bars and restaurants to ask for tap water rather than feeling obliged to ask for more expensive bottled brands
- Encourage restaurants, bars and hotels across London to support London On Tap and proudly serve tap water to customers, giving them a real choice about what water they can drink.
The centerpiece of the initiative was a design competition to develop a carafe that would be a tool to meet these aims. The competition was won by industrial designer Neil Barron. His design, the Tap Top Carafe, based on recycled glass has four non-drip pouring spouts forming a traditional tap head shape.
The carafe was initially sold to restaurants who offered tap water to their clients as an alternative to bottled mineral water. Thames Water then distributed it to Members of Parliament and VIPs including the Queen and Gordon Brown.
What Are the Implications?
What is very clear is that although the issue of bottled water raises many emotions, eliminating it’s use will have a negligible effect on the worlds carbon emissions. So many argue that that there is no point in trying to reduce their consumption.
On the other hand it seems that using bottled water that is not really necessary and has little benefit is a waste of resources and a emitter of carbon that only adds to the existing problem no matter how little.
Photograph from open gallery of Thames Water.
Good to hear that sanity is making a little headway here and there, and a relief to know that one “there” is Buckingham Palace !
Since it isn’t really possible to “single-out” bad busineses – and it’s usually bad ones which “do best” (or we wouldn’t be in this mess) – what is required is an “unsustainability tax” which would depend upon the energy usage involved. An Energy tax.
Which = increase in energy bills = increase in everything’s price = inflation. This is where the link between Energy and Money becomes apparent. Money – basically – merely represents Energy. More so even than Gold, which it used to. The “Wellbeing of the Economy” has all my days, it seems, depended upon the degrading of the Environment and therefore our Future.
The revenue would be used to START, or invested in – NOT subsidize – sustainable business. It’s very simple.
Sustainability without fuel = Real sustainability
This appears to be happening with “Windfarms”, BUT, the pathetic quantity of energy output is subsidized by paying a high premium to the owners of the farm per kW-hr, and the things must be built with energy from other sources but wind for the same reason. Thus they give only an Illusion of sustainability, and are therefore a fraud, to be realistic.