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Water gets a makeover with reusable bottles
Mark Prigg, Science Correspondent16.06.08
A major campaign to improve the image of tap water is launched today.
The charity initiative, called Tap, will sell reusable water bottles as well as stickers to attach to them to advertise the fact that they are not full of environmentally harmful mineral water.
The scheme will give 70 per cent of its profits to water charities.
It follows the Evening Standard's highly successful Water On Tap campaign, which has now signed up more than 3,000 clubs and restaurants. Signatories have pledged to offer tap water to customers as a matter of course.
Tap's founder, Joshua Blackburn of digital marketing agency Provokateur, said: "Bottled water is simply a marketing invention, a brand. What we wanted to do was create a brand around tap water, to turn it into an essential fashion accessory.
"The recent campaigns from the Evening Standard and others have shown that consumers are getting used to asking for tap water in restaurants.
"What we are now selling them is the idea of DIY water when they are out and about. We want to fight marketing with marketing."
Tap will sell £6 books of 10 selfadhesive Tap labels for both small and large water bottles. The labels advertise the Tap brand and allow consumers to mark how many times each bottle has been used.
"We know these bottles can't be reused forever, but the accepted wisdom is that 10 times is perfectly safe," said Mr Blackburn.
Next month the company will also begin selling reusable water bottles for between £6 and £8.50, depending on their size. It is currently negotiating with several major retailers to distribute the bottles around the country.
The campaign is to launch today with a taste test at Gabriel's Wharf on the South Bank from 10am, where London tap water will be pitted against bottled water.
In a previous test organised by Decanter magazine, the tap water topped the table and several sommeliers ranked it as their favourite of all the brands, which included 420 Volcanic, which sells for £50 a litre at Claridge's and is 5,000 times as expensive as tap water.
Decanter editor Guy Woodward said: "It's bad enough that restaurants get away with charging largely ignorant consumers scandalous mark-ups on wine, but charging £5, £10 and £20 for a resource which is freely available is an outrage."
Mayor Boris Johnson said: "I am pleased to lend my support to Tap and its mission to encourage people to drink more tap water over bottled water. We have free tap water in London and by choosing this over expensive bottled water, Londoners can save money, reduce unsightly litter and prevent unnecessarily waste."
Reader views (8)
You're missing the point - for goodness sake - these guys give 70% of their profits to water charities. Of course you don't have to buy their bottles or labels - the point is quit wasting tons of plastic and such. Just look at the statistics on their website.
- Edmund Rowlands, Margate UK
The idea is not bad at all, English people are just not used to recycling!
The only issue could be... the Government has added fluoride to tap water, what next?
Still, we're free to choose anyway.
- Gaya, Europe
The hypocrisy of this article is staggering, eight pounds for an empty bottle and six pounds just to pay for their free marketing is ridiculous. They must think Londoner's are fools to buy into this scheme!
Moreover, I can SMELL the difference between tap water and bottled...!!
- Christopher John, London, UK
Unless people regularly clean these water bottles then wait for the inevitable stomach upsets.
- Mikko Takala, Drumnadrochit, Scotland
The prices of these bottles and labels are just daft. I'm going to carry on re-using a mineral water bottle.
- Liz, London
While on the face of it the campaign seems worthy, you omit to mention that unless the consumer installs a proper, tank-based filtration system (similar to what Dajani used when trying to flog recycled tap water) the water out of our taps is full of chemotherapy drugs and birth control hormones, which pass through in the urine and are not extracted in the recycling process. This may explain, for example, some of the soaring rates of breast cancer and is one reason why I, for one, when away from my heavily filtered home tap water, continue to use bottled water if ordering out.
- Helene Davidson, London
Excuse me?! £6 for stickers and £8.50 for an empty bottle just so that I can drink "free" 'tap' water? I don't need someone selling me an empty vessel in order to take advantage of London tap water, which I have previously managed to consume unaided for 36 years. They said that Pop Will Eat Itself - now it looks like Water Will Drink Itself.
- Paul R, London, UK
"selling reusable water bottles for between £6 and £8.50".
This is a complete and utter rip-off. Bicycle water bottles are already freely available in many bike shops in London and across the city for a fraction of the price and are very robust and versatile and completely reusable.
I bought one from Decathlon for £2 in December 2005 and it's still going strong now. I take it with me everywhere including cycling, driving long distances and hiking. I even used it when I cycled 5000 miles across Canada.
- Andrew Rodgers, Peterborough, UK
