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Bottled water sales dry up as London turns to tap
Lucy Hanbury, Evening Standard14.04.08
Sales of bottled water are dropping amid growing concern about its harmful effects on the environment.
New figures show that the sales are falling for the first time in years, with independent retail analyst TNS reporting a nine per cent fall of shop sales to £248 million in the year up to last month. Restaurant and water cooler sales have also fallen.
The slump follows an Evening Standard campaign to get Londoners to ditch the bottles, especially in restaurants.
The Water On Tap drive has led to up to a fifth of diners in London restaurants opting for tap water. Green campaigners say it shows consumers are taking notice of the damage to ecosystems caused by the packaging and transportation of bottled water.
Tony Juniper, executive director of Friends Of The Earth, said: "Switching to tap water and refilling a reusable bottle is an easy way for all of us to cut plastics and glass waste and reduce the size of our carbon footprints."
Popular water bottle labels, including Evian, Perrier and Volvic, have come under attack from government ministers, consumer groups and green campaigners. A 500ml bottle of Evian typically costs 42p in a supermarket, or 84p a litre - 840 times the price of tap water, which is 0.1p a litre.
Among the environmental costs of bottled water are the energy needed for production, transport and disposal of the bottles. Compared with tap water, it generates more than 5,000 times the amount of carbon emissions per litre.
Transporting bottled water in Britain is estimated to produce 33,200 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, which is equivalent to the annual energy use of 6,000 homes.
The Government's Food Standards Agency has banned bottled water from its offices along with a growing number of Whitehall departments, including Downing Street. More restaurateurs are also offering dinerstap water.
Food and health lobby group Sustain has been running a campaign for government departments and official bodies to switch to tap water. Campaigns director Richard Watts said: "This looks to be the first ever recorded fall in bottled water sales. It is a significant development. The message about bottled water being unnecessary, expensive and damaging to the environment is finally getting through."
Reader views (9)
There is an environmentally attractive alternative to branded bottled waters that is miles better than unpleasant tasting tap water. Indeed, our tap water in the UK may be amongst the best in the world but it can taste horrible and pick up many nasties from the processing plant to the tap - lead, copper, iron, heavy metals, plasticisers, all from the miles of pipes through which it travels... plus bacteria and parasites. Also chlorine that is used to purify this is a carcinogen banned in many countries.
One solution is to filter the water to the ultimate level, removing all this unpleasant and harmful material, then chill and serve it in sealed bottles, not the unhygienic and dangerous carafes some seem to favour. Companies like mine (100% British) supply systems to do this that save over 80% of the cost of branded bottled waters and 97% of the environmental damage. The systems we have installed in the UK (and across the world) save nearly ten million bottles going to watse a year plus thousands of tones of carbon. Support British innovation!
Roger Haywood, marketing director, EcoPure Waters Limited
Access 24/7: mobile 07802 874584, office: 01692 651573, home 01692 651494
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- Roger Haywood, London, UK
Unfortunately, Steve (Chicago, USA) we live in a world of diminishing resources. Eventually, once oil reserves start to dwindle, plastic bottles will become uneconomical. Sooner of later, bottled water companies, along with a raft of other plastic-based industries will have to come to terms with this, so a head start isn't so bad.
I'm not going to keep buying bottled water at 70p per litre - which tastes virtually the same as the stuff out of the tap - just to prop up the bottled water industry; I don't see why I owe them a living?
- S Luker, London, N1
Alexander Avis, USA --- let your water sit in a jug for 24 hours - no more chlorine. Don't forget that your digestive juices are Hydrochloric Acid (HCl) - make your own yoghurt and have a bowlful every day and you will have no more problems.
When you see the state of the water that third world poor people drink - they get sick when they suddenly get 'pure' water --- all a case of acclimatisation.
So think about the impact you are making, however small it may seem, when you jump into your V10 Dodge Ram truck with your trusty Litre bottle of spring water and you drive 1/2 a mile down to the store to buy a newspaper.
- Ian Heritage, Melbourne, Australia
This may be better for the environment, but what about all the jobs that will be lost if the water bottle industry goes out of business, which I would assume is the ultimate goal of the Standard's campaign.
- Steve, Chicago, USA
All you have to do if you are uncertain about your tap water is use one of the water filters, they are good and still way cheaper than bottled water.
- Roger, Sheffield
Well done the Evening Standard not can we see a drive for self sufficiency and get people off the utility dependency we have a enough rain water in this country for us all to be independent of the system and "recycle" our own rainfall for drinking/cleaning purposes how many carbon emissions would this cut down per annum? and how much more money would our government have free to spend on other issues? Also how much per annum would we all save our selves?
- Ion, Bradford
Tap water contains chlorine that burns the stomach and kills healthy bacteria in the stomach. It is clean but only because of the chlorine. I drink bottled spring water and now have no more stomach problems.
- Alexander Avis, San Diego, United States
Snubbing tap water is an insult to all the people who work hard to make tap water so clean and easily available. Aren't we forgetting their sacrifices over the years?
- John, London
It's good to see that after 18 months of campaigning Giles Coren has managed to get the result that he wanted.
- A Gill, London
