The Ashfield, Manly and Blacktown Councils have banned the bottle a their workplace.

The water bottle, that is! 300 million litres of bottled water will be consumed by Australians in 2008. All those bottles consume 544,000 barrels of oil in their production and transportation.

This equates to 72,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, which is the equivalent of 5,143 households entire carbon output for year. That's like putting a large suburb in mud huts for year!

Australia has some challenging gains to make - in 2004, emissions from Australia were 450% higher than the global average, and only just below the USA, so banning the bottle sounds like a pretty effective step in cutting emissions.

The drinks market has a lot to lose - about 13% of bought bottled drinks are now water. The ubiquitous bottle of water has become the symbol of health and fitness over the years. The '8 cups a day' mantra is strong - but do we really need 8 cups of water per day? Researchers have discovered that that is quite the myth, and drinking when thirsty is all the body requires to remain healthy.
"There is no solid evidence that drinking litres of pure water is good for the skin, wards off weight gain or helps rid the body of toxins." according to the news.com.au.

Bring on the bubbler!