Looking at the statistics for UK bottled water consumption is interesting. In 1980 we drank 30 million litres; by 1990 it had risen to 420 million litres; in 2000 it was 1.42 billion litres and 2010 is set to top 2.09 billion litres of bottled water consumed. I was interested by this paragraph from the NPR website in America. It is quite shocking and mostly news to me.
The growth of the bottled water industry is a story about twenty-first-century controversies and contradictions: poverty versus glitterati; perception versus reality; private gain versus public loss. Today people visit luxury water “bars” stocked with bottles of water shipped in from every corner of the world. Water “sommeliers” at fancy restaurants push premium bottled water to satisfy demand and boost profits. Airport travellers have no choice but to buy bottled water at exorbitant prices because their own personal water is considered a security risk. Celebrities tout their current favourite brands of bottled water to fans. People with too much money and too little sense pay $50 or more for plain water in a fancy glass bottle covered in fake gems, or for “premium” water supposedly bottled in some exotic place or treated with some magical process.
There are three kinds of bottled water. They are Natural Mineral Water, Spring Water and Table Water each of which is covered by European Law defining specific regulations. In brief the differences are…
- Natural Mineral Water – comes from a recognised and protected location and has no additives except CO2 in the case of sparkling mineral water. (61% of the UK market)
- Spring Water – must come from from an underground source, be bottled at source and be safe to drink without treatment. (27% of the UK market)
- Table Water – tap water that has been filtered and bottled. (10% of the UK market)
According to the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI), UK drinking water is as good as anywhere in Europe. It is perfectly safe to drink and it is extremely unlikely that you could tell the difference between a glass of chilled tap water and a glass of chilled bottled water. Many people repeat the urban myth that we need to drink eight glasses of water per day to stay healthy (that’s a little under 2 litres), which is roughly the volume of water lost by the average adult per day. Of course, water loss is hugely variable depending upon age, activity, ambient temperature, state of health and alcohol consumption amongst other factors. Most of this lost water is replaced by the food that we eat so the real figure is likely to be significantly less than eight glasses. Fortunately we have been furnished by evolution with a perfect system for determining if we need water, namely thirst. If you are thirsty, have a drink, if you are not thirsty either do or do not have a drink – the choice is yours!
More of a concern is the drain on our natural resources that our obsession with bottled water is having. The carbon emissions from the manufacture of millions of plastic bottles from fossil fuels, the transport costs and then the landfill sites needed to dispose of the rubbish is wholly out of proportion to the benefits of the product. Plastic bottles can be recycled but the need for this is driven by an undeserved reputation for bottled water in the first place.
I have to say that the manufacturing process is fascinating and somewhat mesmeric. If you can bear to suffer the patronising tone of the presenter, the following video is actually quite interesting.
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