Bottled water 'bad as smoking'

Just a quick example of philosophy change (could be compared to what the Europeans are doing to discourage imports from Australia / Asia with "food miles").

By Brian Williams
February 19, 2008 01:20am

Drinking bottle of water same as driving car 1km
Full environmental footprint "frightening"

DRINKING bottled water is so anti-environment that it should be made as unfashionable as smoking.
A British study has found that drinking a bottle of water has the same impact on the environment as driving a car a kilometre. Its production generated up to 600 times more CO2 than tap water. The research was backed strongly yesterday by Clean Up Australia chairman Ian Kiernan, who said using the product was destructive to the environment and users should suffer from social taboos. "Anyone buying this stuff needs to have their head examined," Mr Kiernan said. "It works out that for those buying water shipped in from overseas, they are paying something like $9000 to $10,000 a tonne for water that's worth about a dollar here. "The full environmental footprint is frightening when you take into account the greenhouse gases produced in bottling, trucking and shipping. And do people realise the bottle is made from oil anyway?" Mr Kiernan said the product had been well marketed to young people from a dietary perspective but bottled water was like plastic bags – yesterday's product. The bottles also are becoming a major litter problem, with a Clean Up Australia survey finding plastic beverage and other containers account for about half of the top 10 litter items. Mr Kiernan called on state Sustainability Minister Andrew McNamara to introduce a deposit system on drink containers which would drastically lift recycling rates. Mr McNamara rejected the call, saying a deposit scheme was not being considered. Queensland instead would pursue re-use of a greater proportion of waste. A Newspoll survey commissioned by Clean Up Australia found that 87 per cent of people supported a deposit system and that a 10c refund on a container would drastically reduce rubbish.