Australian town votes overwhelmingly to ban bottle water

That thing I said earlier about this issue not being about the intelligence of consumers ... well, I take it back.

 

I tend to agree that banning bottled water is not the best solution. However,:

The whole example a every other product coming in packaging is a little apples to oranges because most people don't have a candy bar and soda pipe delivering these items to there house without packaging a high transport fees.

 

That's why I keep making the point about recycling. There is also the issue of personal choice. Why do people spend $20 on FedEx when they could spend 40 cents on the US Postal Service? Why do people get 4 gig of memory when 2 gig would do? Why do people buy anything?

Because they believe that what they choose to buy will be better than what they don't. It's their right to choose.

But again, the real issue here is the use and disposal of the plastic. To paraphrase the esteemed words of a few posts back, if people are too "lazy and idiotic" to recycle, then if the government feels it must do something, why not channel its efforts into encouraging people to recycle?

Ok, I'm starting to repeat myself, so it's time for me to bow out of this discussion ...

 

They THINK it is their free, independent choice. The masses are much more under the spell of intensive, state-of-the-art marketing and advertising than they realize.

High-budget marketing of worthless products is protected here by the First Amendment, so government has to find other ways to deal with the problems that result. North Carolina has just passed a law mandating the recycling of plastic bottles, but there is no way to enforce it.

 

Yes, I believe that some compelling factor to promote recycling is the ticket in most places. It is not the cure all solution, though

Depending on the location, population of the city, water supply, and various other factors, recycling can be cost prohibitive or actually ecologically counterproductive. If a town is not large enough to support an exspensive recycling center, or water is scarce(recycling is water intensive) recycling might involve trucking the recyclables a long distance to somewhere they can be recycled, which defeats the original intent of recycling.

So, I'm not saying that recycling isn't a great thing, because it is in most cases, but I can see how a small town in Australia might not have a practical means of recycling. I don't know what the case in this city is, though.

Also, one thing to keep in mind is that recycling still creates waste and uses energy, so it is best to reuse something, rather than recycle. For example, it is much greener to refill jugs at a water filtering station at the grocery store than to buy jugs of water and recycle them.

 

I agree on you mostly Ahimsa. You gotta go by the 3 R's: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. (corny, I know).

The only question about whether to do expensive recycling is whether you would rather have that plastic in the ground indefinately, or a little less fossil fuel. I'd choose for less fuel. You're ultimately choosing either "cleaning up the mess we've made" or "burying the mess we've made".

 

The third choice is "not make a mess."

Something that people don't appreciate is that recycling is still CONSUMING and still creates waste. There is this weird counter-productive psychological mechanism that rewards us and makes us feel good about helping the planet every time we recycle. In reality, we are still creating pollution and using resources by doing so.

Again, recycling is a great thing, but, in times when its easy to "not create a mess" it is certainly the best option. Your drinking supply is something very easy to do without creating any packaging. Simply refill a bottle from a tap. If you absolutely hate the taste of your water, refill a 5 gallon jug at the filtering stationi in you super market.

Just my 2 cents.

 

Hence the first R-Reduce. Reduce your consumption, preferably to near nil. And about the Happy Recyclers, I couldn't agree more!!! I swear environmentalism has been corrupted into a marketing scheme and a rally. People just dont take the time to understand.

When going to my Ecology, Evolution and Environment class at college we had a discussion about the wastefulness of constantly buying bottled water. The teacher mentioned that she noticed I brought the exact same bottle to class every day, while the rest of the class always bought their fancy Aquafina or "flavored" water. You would think that people in that class would be environmentally conscious BEFORE enrolling.