Soft drinks should not be sold at Whanganui's library - resident

Sugary drinks should not be sold in Whanganui District Council facilities, resident Peter Watson says.

Council is working on a policy banning the practice, policy adviser Alex Staric said.

Mr Watson objected to the sale of the bottled drinks on several counts. First, consuming a lot of sugar could lead to obesity and diabetes, and health authorities warned against it.

Poll: Should council develop a sugar-sweetened beverages policy? Have your say here.

Secondly, the drinks are sold in single-use bottles. Some can be recycled, but simply recycling plastic doesn't solve the problem of the world's excess plastic, he said.

Whanganui District Library should not be selling fizzy drinks, Peter Watson says. Photo / Stuart Munro

At Whanganui District Library he found a bottle of ginger beer imported from Australia. Shipping it across the Tasman is a wasteful use of energy and materials, he said.

Discovering a plastic bottle of water for sale made him equally irate. He said the library should have an indoor water fountain, which would cut the need for single-use plastic bottles.

Mr Watson was in Nelson during the summer holidays, and said there was a drinking fountain in its library. Staff told him sugary drinks were not sold in any Nelson City Council venue.

He would like the Whanganui District Council to step up, and remembers a time when there was even a machine to dispense Coke at the library.

"Is this leading edge? It's very much trailing edge, I think."

Mr Staric said Whanganui District Council officers are working on an options paper around potentially introducing a sugar sweetened beverages policy. The work was requested by the council, following a remit at a Local Government New Zealand conference.

Officers have been talking to public health organisations such as the Cancer Society and the Heart Foundation, and are working alongside Healthy Families in developing possible options.

The options paper will be presented for consideration at the council's May 1 strategy and finance committee meeting, he said.