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Aussie Town Bans Bottled Water

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Jul 9, 2009 4:17 AM CDT

(Newser) – A small New South Wales village has become the first community in the world to ban the sale of bottled water, the BBC reports. Bundanoon officials, who say bottled water wastes huge amounts of resources in packaging and transportation, were moved to act when they realized a bottled water company planned to tap the town's underground reservoir, bottle the water hundreds of miles away, and sell it back to them.

Bundanoon's storekeepers unanimously agreed to stop selling bottled water, and will instead sell reusable bottles that can be refilled at the town's water fountains. At a town meeting of 356 people, only two voted against the ban. One was worried that the ban would encourage more people to turn to sugary drinks. The other was a rep from the bottled water industry.

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A Gaerman backpacker drinks bottled water in Sydney, Australia. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith)

A woman walks past a street stall selling bottled water in Sydney, Australia. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith)

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We believe Bundanoon is the world's first town that has got its retailers to ban bottled water. - Anti-bottled water campaigner John Dee

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