CamelBak Gives Water Bottles to Bottle-Banning Australian Town
CamelBak Australia is donating 2,000 of its Better Bottles Bundanoon
The movement against the sale of “single-use” bottled water began when a Sydney-based beverage company, Norlex, proposed pumping water from a local aquifer to bottle for sale. The prospect of buying back their own water—marked up as much as 250 times—in the midst of a seven-year drought struck some Bundanoon townspeople as ridiculous. In July, a meeting was called and more than 350 citizens voted to take it a step farther and outlaw the sale of bottled water.
Bundanoon, which the local aborigines called the “place of deep gullies,” is something of an adventure haven. It’s only a 15-minute walk from the sandstone cliffs and gorges of the 4,000-acre Morton National Park, which is a popular bushwalking and rock-climbing destination. Additionally, local company Wild Horizons has turned Bundanoon’s Ye Olde Bicycle Shoppe into a mountain biking hub for all of New South Wales. In early November, Wild Horizons hosts the Highland Fling, a completely carbon neutral 70-mile mountain bike race that attracts over 1,500 entrants annually.
Last Saturday, September 26, Bundanoon celebrated its newfound status as Australia’s only bottle-free town with food, music and, it goes without saying, plenty of water. The new filtered water taps were christened, and CamelBak handed out its colorful, reusable, BPA-free bottles. I’ll raise a glass (of tap water, naturally) to that!
—Peter Koch
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