While most of us talk the talk and don’t always walk the walk, the small Australian town of Bundanoon, approximately 90 miles southwest of Sydney, is doing both.

Last week this rural town of 2,500 made headline news around the world when its residents voted to ban bottled water.

The trigger for this action was an application by a Sydney company to build a local water extraction plant so it could take water from Bundanoon’s local reserve and truck it back to Sydney for bottling. The application was turned down but it got the local residents thinking about the impact that bottled water has on the environment. And they didn’t like what they learned – such as the fact that “in 2006, the Australian bottle water industry caused the release of 60,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas.”

Despite the fact that many local businesses will take a hit financially, the town overwhelmingly decided to ban the bottle and instead put “Bundy on Tap.”

Free water fountains will be installed to replace the bottled water and local businesses will sell only reusable bottles that can be filled at the fountains.

Image: Klearchos Kapoutsis