Bottled Water Backlash in London

Disposable plastic bags are capable of drawing massive ire from the eco-conscious wherever they show up, but bottled water isn’t very far behind at all. In the United Kingdom especially, bottles of water are looked to as the next target for banishment, and headway is already being made: the Thames Valley District school board is taking a vote tomorrow night, and may become the third district in England to ban the sale of bottled water in its schools.

Bottled water is on the verge of becoming the new social pariah, says an activist leading the charge to ban the packaged beverage.

“One day drinking private plastic bottled water is going to be as uncool as smoking in public or drinking and driving. That is my belief,” says Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the Council of Canadians and the UN’s senior adviser on water.

Bottled water has become the latest environmental battleground as consumers increasingly say goodbye to plastic bags, gas-guzzling vehicles and electricity-gobbling lightbulbs.

Plastics advocates are lashing out against the vote, claiming that such a policy change “wouldn’t lead to any meaningful environmental change.” It sounds more like fear, however — what better place to teach good eco-friendly life habits than in schools? The changes may be few at first, but the lessons taught will, if the the vote passes, likely last a lifetime.

Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 am and is filed under The Daily. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.