Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, in the matter of Tap vs The Bottled Water Industry, we present the Case for the Prosecution...
Britons consume 3 billion litres of bottled water a year.
That's bad. Most bottled water is siphoned into PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles (that's plastic to you). Of the 13 billion plastic bottles of all shapes and sizes sold in the UK last year, only 10 percent were recycled.
What happens to our mountains of empties?
Most are landfilled or incinerated, where only a tiny proportion of their energy value can be recovered. The rest become environmental pollution, a global menace - particularly in the ocean where, as the plastic slowly fragments, it poses a serious threat to wildlife. Every time you consume bottled water, you could be choking a penguin.
Bottled water leaves a huge carbon footprint.
Globally, nearly a quarter of all bottled water crosses national borders to reach consumers, journeys that typically include boat, train and truck transport, racking up considerable water miles and carbon emissions. If they had frequent flyer miles, they'd be traveling business class for free, forever.
Bottled water is damn expensive.
In fact, it's between 250 and 4,000 times more expensive than the stuff that comes out of the tap. And when all they've done is re-bottled filtered tap water, you can imagine why Big Business loves the bottled water industry. Talk about selling ice cubes to eskimoes...
Bottled water is often only filtered tap water
It's true. According to the independent beverage research company, Canadean, at least two out of every five bottles of water sold around the world are simply filtered tap water. Or 40%. So, they take municipal water that costs a fraction of a pence per litre and then sell it for £1.00 a bottle. Clever!
Bottled water uses up natural resources.
Worldwide, approximately 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year, and accounts for approximately 2.5% of the world's oil consumption.
Bottled water ain't so clean anyway
When the NRDC in America tested 1,000 bottles of water, they discovered that a third of tested brands contained contaminants such as arsenic and carcinogenic compounds in at least some samples at levels exceeding state or industry standards. And a study by Syracuse University found that "one fourth of bottled water had ten times the bacterial count of tap water."
Bottlers can adversely affect ground water levels if they bottle more water than is naturally replenished.
Rivers are delicate ecosystems. Tapping springs and aquifers even on a small scale can alter the movement of sediment in nearby streams, which can in turn disrupt the local food supply.
Bottled water makes safe water expensive in developing countries where clean sources can be difficult to find.
As worldwide demand increases, the cost of bottled water is a significant burden for lower-income households in many developing countries.
