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Camden plans to ban bottled water
Elizabeth Hopkirk, Evening Standard18.03.08
Camden council is planning to ban bottled water from all its offices because of its damaging effect on the environment.
Instead, jugs of water will be provided in staff canteens and at council meetings and the council will consider reintroducing drinking fountains across the borough to reduce public reliance on bottled water.
Islington council has already banned bottled water from its buildings following the Evening Standard's Water on Tap campaign, which has called on restaurants, bars, clubs and public places to routinely offer customers tap water.
The Camden proposal is one of a raft of eco-measures contained in a report on food, water, biodiversity and green spaces prepared by a team 15 councillors.
It will be voted on by the executive committee at the end of May.
Liberal Democrat councillor Alexis Rowell, who leads the environmental task force, said: "We need to stop transporting bottles of water around the world in this era of concern about climate change.
"It's crazy to take what's essentially tap water, put it in a bottle and transport it hundreds of miles to a consumer. We would do far better to drink tap water."
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Reader views (19)
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Where's freedom there banning people from drinking bottled water for eco reasons. Fact if there was no bottled water and no cars the world would still suffer from environmental damage factories etc. What about people that dont drink tap water?
- I.Hancock, London
This is a great idea, because if there is another big fire it would be put out much quicker with jugs of water instead of having to mess around with all those fiddly bottle caps.
- L, Sydney, Australia
I look forward to the day when the Evening Standard is ONLY available for free, online. Why should we pay for something which we can get for free. Why should we pay for something which has no environmental impact when it is published online? What about all the paper, the energy used to run the printing plants, not to mention the tens of gas guzzling vans which deliver the paper to the four corners of the south east.
We should buy the Evening Standard in print form because of choice? Convenience? Because nothing in life is free? Because the Evening Standard is an honest business, in an honest industry, just trying to survive like everyone else out there?
Hmmm, can those exact arguments not apply to bottled water too?
No doubt you will not have the courage to publish this. Your one-sided campaign totally misses the point. Bottled water is not as big an issue as you would like to make out. There is a lot more good sentiment towards bottled water than you would want to admit. London's paper? Surely if you were, you would not be running a campaign which threatens the profitability of one of our lifeblood industries - the restaurant trade. Restaurants are not cash cows and water is an important part of their attempts to not make a loss, in the face of huge on-costs of providing fine food and service in London.
And they have always offered tap water and consumers have always made the choice which best suits them.
- Gh, London, London
