Council pushes tap water over bottled water

Bottle stickers promoting Eurobodalla’s water as amongst the best in the world, and pointing out that it is our most precious resource, will be distributed to local cafes and restaurants that serve tap water to their customers.

It’s part of the council’s “Tap Water Please” campaign, which aims to educate people about the quality of Eurobodalla’s water supply and encourages people to fill reusable drink bottles with tap or tank water instead of buying bottled water.

The stickers complement council’s water refill stations placed at key recreation areas across Eurobodalla.

Council’s Sustainability Education Officer Gillian Kearney said Eurobodalla’s drinking water, treated in a state-of-the-art filtration plant at Batehaven, was some of the best and safest in the world to drink and exceeded World Health Organisation standards.

“Despite this, some people still perceive that bottled water is safer and more convenient,” Ms Kearney said.

“From an environmental and financial point of view, buying bottled water is not a good choice.”

Tap water costs less than half a cent per litre, compared to bottled water costing around $3 a litre. In addition, only 35 per cent of plastic bottles are actually recycled, despite them being recyclable.

“Most empty water containers end up in landfill or as litter, where they can end up in waterways and kill or harm marine life,” Ms Kearney said.

“It also takes about three litres of drinking water to make one litre of bottled water. Our most precious resource, drinking water only constitutes about 3 per cent of the world’s water, of which only 1 per cent can be sourced and treated for drinking.

“It is vital it is valued and conserved.”

Ms Kearney praised the many local cafes and restaurants already serving quality tap water to their customers.

“Placing these stickers on reusable bottles is a simple way they can champion the cause even further,” she said. “We will be approaching cafes and restaurants over the next month or so and distributing the stickers, but if you would like to receive some of the stickers please give us a call.”

To learn more about water-saving incentives visit www.esc.nsw.gov.au.