Bundy On Tap at the Powerhouse Museum

Australia's largest and most popular museum, The Powerhouse Museum, in Sydney, has just revamped one of its permanent exhibitions — EcoLogic : creating a sustainable future. Bundy on Tap is a key exhibit in the section called "Redesigning our world," where the BoT Premium reusable Camelbak bottles are on display with a water bubbler, alongside handwritten letters from school kids praising Bundanoon endeavours.

With the Powerhouse attracting over 700,000 visitors annually inclusion in this permanent exhibit is a yet another way the small village of Bundanoon has been able to leverage the message about the environmental travesty that is the single serve bottled water industry.

Bundy on Tap wins

Bundanoon has taken out this year’s "Waste Management and Litter Reductions" category at the 2011 Keep Australia Beautiful NSW Tidy Towns Sustainable Communities Awards for the 'Bundy on Tap' initiative . Bundanoon also came second in the overall Category C award.

Bundy on Tap was praised for being "one of the most well-thought-out, well-orchestrated and delivered projects" that Tidy Towns assessor Phil Bryant had ever seen.

“Not only has this project been a very worthwhile environmental undertaking, but its acceptance and support by the community as a whole has been outstanding,” Bryant said.

Congratulations to a town that came together to take action. This is further recognition of the positive nature of what Bundanoon has done and the continuing attention Bundy on Tap and bottled water reduction receives over a year since the ban was put in place.

Click here for more information on the Tidy Town Awards.

Summer Bay follows Bundy’s Lead

Image Courtesy Channel 7

It may be fictional, but in a recent episode of Channel 7’s Home and Away the town’s kids got together to lobby the local council to ban bottled water. The council voted 4 to 1 to go bottled-water-free.

This is just another sign that mainstream media continues to rate this as an issue. Although this is of course a fictional story, there are a number of other towns across the globe who are taking similar steps to curb the sale of bottled water.

Concord, Massachusetts are due to ban bottled water in 2011 and Italy’s heritage coastline has also banned the plastic water bottle in an attempt to protect the World Heritage environment and the amenity of the region (in August over 400,000 were discarded along the coastline).

As with Bundanoon, the success of any of these (real-life) initiatives relies on providing access to fresh, clean, readily available water, through such initiatives as the Culligan Water and Street Furniture Australia bubblers

Congratulations Summer Bay, can’t wait for Ramsay Street to do the same!

Bottled Water Free: The 2010 Garden Ramble and Highland Fling

Bundy on Tap celebrated the annual Bundanoon Garden Ramble with a stall selling BOT re-usable water bottles and providing free filtered water to the 700 visitors.

The event always draws a large number of visitors to the town and being out and about means they need plenty of water, so BOT was on hand to help out.

The BOT crew will also be out in force for the upcoming Highland Fling – one of Australia’s biggest gatherings of mountain bike riders – with Water Stations at the event including one from Culligan Water.

As Huw Kingston (founder of the Fling and the man behind BOT) explains: “The Fling has always been bottled water free – that and Brigadoon are the 2 big Bundy events that are bottled water free.”

You can read more about the Highalnd Fling and its commitment to the environment here.

Bundy On Tap Community Party

When: Tuesday 6th July, 6.30pm

Where: Bundanoon Memorial Hall

It’s time to celebrate Bundy on Tap

1 year on!

Our village campaign to go bottled water free had an amazing worldwide ripple effect – come & hear some stories

Celebrate with your fellow Bundanoonians over a drink & heart-warming food

Be uplifted once again by the Bundy on Tap “anthem” sung by Serendipity – The Choir & the Bundanoon schoolchildren

Win a lucky door prize & a special prize for the person best expressing the “Bundy on Tap” theme

For further information contact Sandra Menteith 0403 790777 sandra@bundyontap.com.au

New History Timeline For Bundy On Tap Website

The Bundy on Tap website has undergone a grease and oil change and now sports a few new extras.

These include the earlier mentioned page on the Bundy On Tap Reusable Bottles.

But also of interest may be the new History Timeline, that charts the order of events and tasks that led to the successful launch of Australia's First Bottled Water Free Town.

The Gallery page also has more photos, as well as letters from enthusiastic school children.

Enjoy.

Australian EcoDesigned Reusable Water Bottle Has Built-in Filter

The Victorian company Half a Teaspoon is in the process of commercialising a new upmarket reusable drink bottle. The bottle called the 321, and designed by Charlwood Design, integrates a plunger-style carbon filter. The product has received financial support from Design Victoria to help it through the design phase.

The product name 321 refers to the ratio of three litres water used to process one litre of bottled water. The company name Half a Teaspoon refers to the ratio of fresh potable water available on the planet. (If the earth's total water supply is equal to one litre, only half a teaspoon is accessible drinking quality water.)

Highland Fling 2009 Was Bottled Water Free

The Wild Horizons Highlands Fling is a challenging mountain bike event, for all levels of cycling enthusiasts, as it winds through farmland and forest. The weekend of cycling events attracts over 1,800 riders, plus friends and family. Local community groups often raise over $40,000 by participating in the weekend event.

As a supporter of the Bundy On Tap initiative, the 2009 Highlands Fling went Bottled Water Free. (and will again in November 2010.)

At the 2009 event Culligan Water set up a mobile water refill station, supplying filtered tap water for riders to top up their reusable drink bottles.

Bundanoon Is Brigadoon. And Brigadoon is Bottled Water Free

The famed Bundanoon Highland Gathering, known affectionately as Brigadoon, is going bottled water free for 2010. One of the world's largest highland gatherings (over 20,000 visitors) Brigadoon will again show a reverence for all things Scottish, on Saturday, 17 April 2010.

The Bundanoon Highland Gathering Committee have taken the step of advising visitors of their bottled water free actions via the event's website:

"• WATER - PLEASE NOTE: The Bundanoon Highland Gathering fully supports the "Bundy on Tap" proposal for stopping the sale of bottled water in Bundanoon, and therefore there will be NO bottled water for sale at the gathering.

• Water Bottles will be available for sale at the Village or the Gathering

• There are FREE water stations in town and facilities at the oval to fill reusable water bottles.

Either bring you own Water bottle or purchase a Bundy on Tap bottle in the Village or a reusable water bottle at the oval."

2010 Kangaroo Valley Folk Festival To Be Bottled Water Free

The stall application form for the popular Kangaroo Valley Folk Festival informs stallholders that, "All packaging and utensils must be recyclable or compostible. Bottled water is not to be sold, in accordance with the Kangaroo Valley sustainability program. Chilled water is available for free at the bar."

The Festival will be held 22 to 24 October 2010 and supports the Kangaroo Valley Carbon Neutral Program, an initiative of Kangaroo Valley Tourist Association.

Huw Kingston Nominated for Wingecarribee Shire Citizen of the Year

The Southern Highland News summarised Huw's nomination as:

"Huw Kingston actively promotes the Highlands as a destination for cycling. He organises the annual Highland Fling mountain bike event, attracting thousands of competitors and spectators to the southern villages.

Mr Kingston instigated the “Bottle-free Bundanoon” campaign, encouraging visitors and residents of Bundanoon to drink tap water instead of bottled water."

However, at an Australia Day ceremony held at Berrima, it was announced that Gordon Lewis was to be named Wingecarribee Shire Citizen of the Year. Congratulations Gordon.

Sundance Film Festival Offers Bottled Water Alternative

Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival, 21 -31 January 2010, is again teaming up with Brita Filters and Nalgene water bottles in the FilterForGood campaign to reduce bottled water use and waste at the festival.

A media release for the project quotes Sarah Pearce, Director of Festival Operations, "The Sundance Film Festival is committed to reducing our carbon footprint, and reducing bottled water is one of the simplest ways to do that."

When the campaign was run in 2009 festival attendees could purchase FilterForGood reusable Nalgene bottles for $10 USD, which they could then fill at Brita Hydration Stations. This reduced the need for 50,000 bottles of water that Sundance had distributed at previous Film Festivals.

British Pubs to Provide Free Tap Water to Patrons

The news service Reuters reports, that new legislation being introduced in the United Kingdom, aimed at curbing a culture of heavy drinking, requires that, "publicans will have to ensure free tap water is made available to revelers."

New Refillable Bottle Info at Bundy On Tap

Many friends and supporters on the Bundy On Tap campaign have asked for detailed information about the two refillable water bottles that BOT selected. In order to better answer those questions we've put up a new Bottles page up on the website.

Hopefully we've covered most of the queries people had about our bottles.

London Follows Bundanoon's Lead

The Guardian Newspaper reports that London is looking to follow the Bundy On Tap model and install water fountains and refill stations in the British capital.

Thames Water will install refill stations (capable of refilling a 500ml bottle for 20p) in two high traffic locations that are frequented by about 4.4 million people annually.

If successful the refill units will appear at public transport stations across London in time for the 2012 Olympics.

The article also notes that Hyde Park also scored its first drinking fountain in 30 years.

Momentum is gathering.

Congrats Jon Dee, NSW Australian of the Year

Jon Dee, co-founder of environmental advocacy groups Planet Ark, and more recently Do Something! was in mid November 2009 named NSW Australian of the Year.

Bundy on Tap publicly, and belatedly, congratulates Jon on this recognition of his achievements, over almost twenty years of active campaigning for a better world.

Jon Dee, through Do Something's Bottled Water Alliance project, worked very closely the Bundy On Tap committee to help bring our project to realisation. His industry contacts and media savvy were a significant part of the success of Bundy on Tap. Thank You, Jon.

And all the best on chances of now being named Australian of Year, on Australia Day, 26 January 2010.

BundyOnTap Blogs

Well, here we are. On the blogsphere.

The Bundy On Tap website will remain our central repository of information about Bundanoon, Australia's First Bottled Water Free Town, but we will use this blog to add news as it comes to hand.

Welcome.