Australian town bans bottled water – hooray!
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This is what your landfill looks like because you irrationally fear your tap water. Photo: Brett Weinstein
Three cheers for the residents of Bundanoon, Australia, who this week banned the sale of bottled water in their town. This came just after New South Wales banned all state departments and agencies from purchasing bottled water because it is a waste of money and natural resources.
Buying water when you have perfectly good water on tap is an environmental menace. Bottles clog landfills and waste giant amounts of energy to produce and transport.
According to Deborah Lapidus of Corporate Accountability International’s “Think Outside the Bottle” campaign, Bunadanoon’s ban is the first of its kind. “I think what this town is doing is taking it one step further and recognizing that there’s safe drinking water coming out of our taps,” said Lapidus.
No, your bottled water is not safer than your tap water, and even the General Accounting Office says so:
Bottom line: The Food and Drug Administration oversees bottled water, and U.S. EPA is in charge of tap water. FDA lacks the regulatory authority of EPA, John Stephenson of the Government Accountability Office told a House panel.
The Safe Drinking Water Act empowers EPA to require water testing by certified laboratories and that violations be reported within a specified time frame. Public water systems must also provide reports to customers about their water, noting its source, evidence of contaminants and compliance with regulations.
By comparison, GAO said, FDA regulates bottled water as a food and cannot require certified lab testing or violation reporting. Furthermore, FDA does not require bottled water companies to disclose to consumers where the water came from, how it has been treated or what contaminants it contains. In a survey of 188 brands of bottled water released yesterday, the nonprofit Environmental Working Group found only two providing such information about its product to consumers.
Stop buying bottled water unless there is no source of clean tap water nearby. You are ruining the environment and wasting our natural resources when you do, all for a false sense that it’s healthier. It’s not. One of humanity’s dumbest trends ever.
According to Forbes magazine, these are the ten best municipal water systems in the United States:
10. Tulsa, Oklahoma
9. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
8. Tampa, Florida
7. Las Vegas, Nevada
6. Boise City, Idaho
5. Birmingham, Alabama
4. Miami, Florida
3. Sioux Falls, South Dakota
2. Austin, Texas
1. Des Moines, Iowa
Here’s a New York Times opinion piece on the supremacy of tap water.
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Nestle Waters North America wants to withdraw 65 million gallons of spring water a year for its Arrowhead brand of bottled water from springs near the Arkansas River, a few miles south of Buena Vista…..
http://www.gazette.com/news/water-57690-recycling-percent.html
Cheer! Cheer! Cheer!
Although having tasted and sampled the waters around many a town in New south Wales personally, I’d advised a recyclable Britta water filter or something similar. The tangy aftertaste of those government sanctioned chemical purifying aids can get a little funky!