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The days of idle chit-chat around the water cooler are over for NSW public servants.

NSW Premier Nathan Rees has announced an immediate ban on all departments and agencies buying bottled water, including supplies for water coolers. He says it is the first step in a government campaign to significantly reduce the consumption of bottled water in the community.

The announcement comes hours before the village of Bundanoon in NSW’s Southern Highlands is expected to declare a voluntary ban on bottled water at a town meeting tonight.

In what is believed to be an Australian first, all businesses in the town have already agreed to stop selling bottled-water products.

Mr Rees said the Department of Environment and Climate Change had advised the Government to also consider a public information campaign highlighting the high cost of buying bottled water and its impact on the environment.

“These plastic bottles are everywhere,” Mr Rees told reporters. “It’s not just the direct plastic bottle that causes the physical reality in our local environment. “Bear this in mind, you take a 600ml plastic bottle, 200ml of oil has gone into its production. That’s leaving aside the C02 that comes from transporting it around the place.”

Australians spent about $500 million on bottled water in 2008, a 10 per cent increase on 2007.

Mr Rees said he did not know how much money the ban would save, but pointed out that a drink bottle can be refilled 1350 times for the average cost of a bottle of spring water.

Bottled water has been banned in ministerial offices at Governor Macquarie Tower in Sydney’s CBD since Mr Rees became premier.

Environmental group Do Something! welcomed the Government’s move, saying it, along with the people of Bundanoon, could be the catalyst for change in the community.

“It’s all about common sense,” Do Something! Director Jon Dee said. “When you reduce the usage of bottled water you’re not just saving the environment, you’re also saving your wallet at the same time. It makes total sense whether you’re a government department or whether you’re a company, whether it’s in smaller bottles or the larger bottles that get delivered to offices.”

Mr. Dee said it made no sense for people to pay twice as much for a litre of bottled water than they did for a litre of petrol.

“The bottled water industry has managed to convince people that bottled water is somehow pure or better for you than water you drink out of the tap,” he said. “But we have amongst the best tap water in the world.”

Meanwhile…

Thirsty San Francisco city workers will no longer have bottled water to drink under an order by Mayor Gavin Newsom, who says it costs too much, worsens pollution and is no better than tap water.

Newsom’s executive order bars city departments, agencies and contractors from using city funds to serve water in plastic bottles and in larger dispensers when tap water is available.

“In San Francisco, for the price of one 1 gallon (3.8 liters) of bottled water, local residents can purchase 1,000 gallons of tap water,” according to the mayor’s order.

Newsom estimates San Francisco could save $500,000 a year under his directive, which also addresses environmental concerns over the amount of oil used to make and transport plastic water bottles.

“All of this waste and pollution is generated by a product that by objective standards is often inferior to the quality of San Francisco’s pristine tap water,” according to the order.

The ban on the ubiquitous plastic bottles follows a prohibition in March by city officials on plastic shopping bags in large supermarkets because recycling efforts had largely failed.

Bottled Water Facts:

• Bottled water is on average 1000 times more expensive than tap water
• Labeling of bottled water carries no requirement to reflect its chemical or bacteriological content
• 22 million tonnes of bottled water are transported between countries every year
• The bottled water industry in the UK is calculated at generating 33,200 tonnes of CO₂ annually
• In 2004, the plastic bottles that delivered 26 billion litres of water to Americans required more than 1.5 million barrels of oil
• An estimated 2 gallons of water are used for every gallon of water purified to put into the bottle
• One third of the money spent on bottled water would be enough to halve the number of people without ready access to clean, safe drinking water

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