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London urged to boycott bottled water
By Mark Prigg, Evening Standard Last updated at 11:19am on 12.07.07
Londoners are being urged to stop drinking bottled water
Londoners are being urged to boycott bottled water over fears that a major rise in consumption is damaging the environment.
Today, the Green Party launched a campaign asking Londoners to request tap water in restaurants and pubs.
Jenny Jones, a Green Party member of the London Assembly, said: "Londoners need to show some independence and show that ordering tap water with your meal or in the pub is the fashionable and the right thing to do. Selling bottled water and burning huge quantities of fossil fuels for its transportation does not make economic or environmental sense."
The call comes just days after city officials in New York launched a similar campaign to persuade people to abandon bottled water.
Local restaurants there have been encouraged to support the "Get Your Fill" campaign. The city is spending £350,000 on radio adverts and posters for what they describe as "the champagne of municipal waters".
Londoners drink the bottled water equivalent of just over one Olympic-sized swimming pool per week, of which 25 per cent is imported.
The capital now consumes more bottled water than Coca-Cola, for the first time. It is now the world's fastest-growing drinks sector worth £1.2bn a year.
The industry claims it has improved recycling rates but opponents say the huge transport costs of water make it one of the least green products on the market.
Reader views (24)
Instead of trying to shut down water bottle companies, try to improve the conditions of tap water so people can drink that instead.
- Vinay, California
The current situation in Gloucester shows that diversity of supply is important, where would they ALL be without some bottled water just now? BOTH bottled and tap surely have their place and people should be free to choose what THEY want or prefer or is THAT too simple?
- Richard, London , UK
There is no need for such a drama. Tap water is not all pee and dirt and "god I’ll die tomorrow". No need to be over-sensitive/reactive.
We are all victims of marketing! We don't need bottled water to live forever, come on think of it. The amount of people dying/getting sick from tap water in a developed country is 0% if I'm not mistaken. Sorry for bursting the sparkling bubble.
- Aniko, London
To David in London. So tap water is free is it? What part of London do you live in that does not have water rates? Nothing in life is free. Think again.
- Monica, Portsmouth
Water from the Thames is the purest - by the time you get to drink it, it has been filtered through at least seven sets of kidneys.
- Ian, London
Mmmmm, bottled water or recycled pee from the tap - difficult choice.
- Casper, London UK
Why are politicians sending us mixed messages? First we're told tap water is full of chemicals, isn't clean and shouldn't be drunk. Now we're being told the opposite because it might affect the environment. The only way anybody is going to stop drinking bottled water is when the government actually stops shops, pubs etc. from actually selling it!
- Richard Perkins, London, England
Perhaps the Mayor of London could restore the hundreds of free drinking fountains that the Victorians put in all over London.Or would that put impact too much on bars and snack shops?
- Roz, Chamonix, France
Follow up on David from London - he encourages us to drink milk - so cows can keep making 30% of world's methane?
- Charles, Oxford, UK
Mediterranean countries all drink bottled water because their tap water is undrinkable. Why should we stop?
- Jan, Romford
Don't smoke, eat properly or we will VAT junk food, drink the water we tell you to drink! The final imposition will be here soon - sex will be the subject of government control!
- Roy G, Solihull
Is there nothing that these miserable Greens won't whinge about?
- Lawrence, London
Considering our bodies are 75% water, it is essential we drink as much as possible, so these demands are silly and unrealistic. I am sure it is equally as bad producing all the other kind of drinks including colas etc, but no one is preaching to stop drinking them? Personally I have water filters in my house to purify my tap water, and I only buy bottled water when I am on the run.
- Brandon Ward, London UK
Buying water is pure stupity, its free from your tap, spend the money on milk instead and give the farmers a chance.
- David, London
It amazes me that people are prepared to pay over £1 for less that a pint of a 'supposedly' natural product, yet are not prepared to pay the same or more for a pint of milk, which is far more costly to produce.
Everyone buying water must be nuts, why do that when you can fill a bottle at home for nothing! Its pure stupidity and the height of laziness.
- David, London
Which is all very well, but restaurants aren't obliged to provide customers with tap water and if they insist on selling you bottled water are you supposed to storm out in a huff?
- Trevor Roll, London
I have always maintained that bottled water is just about the biggest scam ever. The very idea of buying something that comes free, and often cleaner, from a tap is laughable. If you don't like the taste of chlorine, leave it in the fridge, in a jug for 2 days and it will be gone.
- Steph, Ilford
Bottled water is one of the biggest rip-offs in our society today. It needs to be heavily restricted.
- John Evans, London, U.K.
We have been drinking bottled water here for a couple of years now as the water out of the tap is disgusting although it is supposed to be from underground sources locally. When the water companies get it right perhaps we shall stop buying it in bottled and go green and just fill an empty lemonade bottle from the tap. But at the moment the taste of TCP that is left lingering in your mouth or tainting tea and coffee after using tap wateris going to have to stay in the tap, other than for washing. I have even bought a special kettle that has a filter in it to try and counteract the awful taste.
- Monica, Portsmouth
People who buy bottled water clearly have more moeny than sense and no idea of the damage to the environment that the bottled water industry causes. Shipping water from France or Fiji is a complete waste of resources, totally irresponsible at a personal level and should be stopped. We have plenty of potable weather in this country and really don't need to import it, let alone pay silly prices for the stuff in fancy bottles. Fill a bottle from the tap if you need to drink it on the move or in the gym.
- Colin, London
I am all in favour of ordering tap water in a restaurant, but you need to be ready to persist. There is no money in tap water, and my experience is that the order for tap water is often 'forgotten', or you are grudgingly supplied with one glass. The worst I have experienced was being told that health and safety regulations prevented the restaurant from supplying tap water, and in another restaurant that customers had complained about the taste and the restaurant therefore provided only bottled water.
There are, however, splendid exceptions: staff in the Pizza Express chain always supply large jugs of iced tap water on request, and make sure that you are kept topped up. Let others follow their lead!
- Nicholas Page, London
I will continue to drink bottled water because I don't believe Thames Water is particularly pleasant or healthy.
Besides, I am a free person living in a free democracy, and it's my choice what I drink.
- Steve R, London, UK
All very well but the tap water needs to be made pure and not have foul tastes in it.
- Sarah, London
About time someone took the lead in this. The whole bottled water business is an environmental disaster. Much better to let gravity deliver the water through the taps!
- Richard, London
