The thing about that is some places have the tap water using the toilet water, through recycling but some places don't filter so well so what ever goes into the toilet is what is flowing through the sink.
They're not making anyone do anything. They're making people NOT do something. You don't need to drink water. There are a lot of other drinks.
Of course, as I said in an earlier post, it's totally understandable that some places are depending on bottled water. But in many cases in west, we're just too picky.
I think it'd be absolutely ridiculous to ban bottled water. There are SO many things that are hazardous to the environment that aren't banned and that are WORSE than plastic bottles of water. :\ I think all the nature hippie environmentalists are taking things a LITTLE too far.
If you take some time and think of it, they're actually just taking a small step in the right direction. They're banning the one thing that everyone (in the affected areas) can get at their own homes instead from the store. They're not trying to ban the trucks that ships the bottled water because they know that cities need those trucks for shipping other stuff. They're not trying to ban cars because people are depending on those as well. They're simply saying that there's no point in getting tap water on bottle when you can get it from your tap, since the whole bottled water industry is not very friendly to the enviromental. You think they're taking it too far? That's the opposite of what they're doing.
hmm, in my country now, they're thinking of not banning bottled water, but taxing it higher, so that people would be discouraged from drinking from mineral plastic water bottles.
Visit McDowell County in WV and try to tell them they can't have bottled water. The 6th poorest county in the nation. Many of the towns town there, their water pipes are so horribly cared for, that they've eroded, just like the SEWER pipes have eroded. Their water is MIXED in together, and in many parts of the area it's completely 110% UNSAFE to drink the water, or to even brush your teeth for 2 minutes, and there are HEALTH warnings against it. If they didn't have bottled water, there would be RAMPANT illness and sickness. If bottled water is banned what are they going to do? Their towns don't have the money to get the pipes fixed!! So no, they can't get it from THEIR tap, and they haven't been able to for YEARS and probably for years to come until the pipes are competely fixed and all the water is completely filtered through. So tell them they can't have bottled water. Tell them they're just going to have to deal with illness and sickness until the tap is fixed, which god knows when that'll happen. Yeah, I think they're taking it to far. Ban every snack packaging. Ban every plastic that could possibly be thrown out a window somewhere-- It's just ridiculous.
I think taxing it would be a good idea in places that have good tap water there really is no need and if you can afford to spend the money on bottled water you can clearly afford a filter. In areas where water is bad obviously a ban would be ridiculous there but I doubt many governments wouldn't think everything through before imposing a ban.
Well it's been shown many times over and over that governments often don't think TOO many things THAT through apparently.
Well I will agree with that but once a ban is in place in an area where it isn't appropriate there will be protests, news coverage etc and then the government should realize that putting a ban in that area was a stupid idea. I think if a government is going to try and make a stand against cleaning up the environment bottled water is a stupid place to start but if they do start there hopefully they will realize a ban isn't practical in some areas if they don't we just wait for uproar.
I still say that some bottled waters shouldn't only be recyclable in maine.. thats one out of 50 states it could be recycled in.. it's stupid.. who made up this rule. lol
There's an uproar over the war in Iraq, and not too much about that has been changed... Maybe I just don't have enough faith in the government.
Now you're just making me repeat myself; I've said several times in this thread that I don't think the ban should apply everywhere, only where the tap water is drinkable. Then of course, it can be discussed what should happen with the places where the tap water is not drinkable. Repairs?
If we look from an economist viewpoint, The bottled water private social marginal benefits (convenience, health etc) surely is higher than its social marginal cost( the pollution generated by discarded bottles, degrading of scenery by such bottles etc). Banning bottled water will result in a major welfare loss, which is not desirable. Better solutions to this problem are to internalize the marginal cost with taxing, or provision of information regarding pollution, enacting fines for littering or at most regulating bottled water companies to change the materials for their bottles into something thats more biodegradable.
The practical problems of banning bottled water are such that I don't think it is sensible - for example what happens when there is a burst water pipe and a home (or several homes) has no water for a couple of days? What about in office blocks where the tap water is usually not safe to drink? I think that bottle water should come in biodegradable packaging and be taxed as a luxury good.