"Stop Bottled Water Waste" say Councillors

5.45.23pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 11th Feb 2008

Cllr Sarah Bevan is calling for an end to bottled water at BANES Council

Lib Dems are proposing that B&NES Council should stop buying bottled water for Council meetings in order to help cut down on waste and carbon emissions and to save money.

Councillors have tabled a motion to the next Council meeting on February 19th calling for the Council to use tap water instead and pointing out the negative environmental effects of bottled water in terms of the bottles themselves (which must be recycled or they go to landfill), and the carbon emissions produced by shipping the water from the source. Bottled water is also responsible for depletion of groundwater and is not subject to the same rigorous standards as tap water.

Many Councils across the country have got rid of bottled water, including: Northamptonshire, Islington, Kent, Surrey and Liverpool.

Councillor Sarah Bevan (Lib Dem, Peasedown), who will propose the motion on behalf of the Liberal Democrat Group, said

"The current practice of buying water in bottles is unjustifiable, both on environmental and financial grounds. We should stop doing this and save tax payers' money, putting the savings to good use for residents.

"Fashionable bottled water should have no place in local authority buildings given that UK drinking water is safe!"

Factfile (source - the Guardian):

· 7 litres of water are used to manufacture a one litre plastic bottle.

· Transporting bottled water in the UK is estimated to produce about 33,200 tons of CO2 emissions annually.

· Britons drink 3 billion bottles of water every year.

· Tap water is 500 times cheaper than bottled water.