We Drink Tap Water

• Home
• Environment and Planning
• Community Environmental Action and Sustainable Development
• Eco Footprint
• Reduce Your Individual Eco-Footprint
• We Drink Tap Water

You may not realise that bottled water is a major contributor to carbon emissions through its transportation, and the price you pay for it may be for the packaging and image, not the water inside.

Why tap water is good for you:

• You will save a fortune - Bottled water costs up to 500 times more than tap water, the equivalent of paying £1,500 for a pint of beer or glass of wine.

• Water is good for you - Water is calorie free and vital for your survival. No coincidence that when you are really thirsty you are most likely to quench it with a glass of water.

• It tastes good - London’s tap water is rated top in the UK, making it one of the best in the world. It consistently rates highly in taste tests, beating more expensive, bottled alternatives.

• Nearly everyone agrees that tap water is great! Mineral water in restaurants is considered ‘too expensive’ by 70% of people who also want to see free tap water readily available.

Why tap water is good for the environment:

• Less CO2 emissions - Bottled water has a higher carbon footprint per litre than tap water - more than 300 times the CO2 emissions per litre in the case of some imported brands.

• Less packaging - Around 2.7million tonnes of plastic are used to bottle water each year worldwide.

• Less transportation - Around 22million tonnes of bottled water are transferred each year from country to country.

• Less waste products - Three out of four plastic bottles are still not recycled. According to the Container Recycling Institute, 90 percent of PET bottles end up in landfills, at a rate of 30 million a day, where they take 450 years to break down.

• Less energy - In 2006, 1.5million barrels of oil were used to make the 26billion litres of bottled water sold in the US. Enough to fuel 100,000 cars for a year.