Twice as expensive as petrol, three times the price of milk and 7,000 times more expensive than tap water, the “healthy option” of bottled water trade has become an almost universal accessory of modern day life. It may be refreshing and convenient – but it certainly isn’t clean or environmentally friendly. Whether you want to remedy this however, is at your discretion.

Demand and degradation

It is estimated that bottled water is up to 10,000 times more damaging for the environment than tap water in terms of the vast resources and energy required for extraction, packaging and transportation.

Even where tap water is safe to drink, demand for bottled water has soared. According to an EPI report, tap water is delivered through an “energy efficient infrastructure”, while bottled water if often shipped half way across the world, burning vast amounts of fossil fuels en route.

Transportation is the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions; harmful effects we can help reduce from drinking straight from the tap.

Bottled water has soared in sales internationally from 7.5 billion litres in 1990, to a whopping 154 billion in 2004. Britons use 15 million bottled a day, only 22 percent of which are recycled. Conventional PET plastics, derived from oil take 1000 years to decompose, heralding a high burden for a short term quench.

The myth

Whether it’s a choice for the image conscious, a healthy alternative, or apparently just for the taste, what we are paying for is essentially the same as what comes from the tap.

An experiment involving 25 tasting participants, a cup of bottled water, the other, tap water, reveals all. Before the experiment, 89 per cent of those who took part stated that they preferred the taste of bottled water. The results contradict this, with 72 per cent of unable to tell the difference between tap and bottled water while 65 per cent actually preferred the tap water. Despite their initial reservations to tap water, even they were surprised by the results.

This certainly flies in the face of the bottled water companies who play on the water’s credentials – qualities that are found in all naturally occurring water and this is no small measure down to their success in pitching ‘the healthy option’ amongst the regular line up of soft drinks.

For the bottled water companies, image is everything. Purity, cleanliness and health are all posed to be qualities for the discerning customer, yet whether these credentials are lived up to in reality is not constant. Buxton water encapsulate consumer desire by projecting images of the beautiful Derbyshire countryside, when in reality the water is bottled in a industrial estate next to a busy railway yard.

Despite extensive marketing attempts by bottled water brands in trying to establish a competitive advantage in what is essentially a homogenous product, all water contains the same naturally dissolved minerals; calcium, magnesium and potassium at varying levels.

Bottled blunders.

It is estimated that up to 40 per cent of bottled water has been obtained straight from the tap with the addition of further filtration.

Coca Cola’s bottled water brand, Dasani were once hit by the killer revelation that its bottled water, retailing at 95 pence for 500ml actually came from a tap in Sidcup, Kent. The same amount of tap water to the consumer would cost as little as 0.03p. In Coca Cola’s defence, the filtration process of ‘reverse osmosis’ was Dasani’s unique selling point. Whether it actually makes any difference, informed consumers will vote ultimately vote with their wallets.

An investigation lead by BBC1’s Watchdog probing into the brand Crystal Spring, revealed that the only difference between London tap water and the £2- a- go bottle was the slightly raised levels of copper and zinc. The removal of chlorine from the water made bacteria levels 10,000 times higher, thus less safer to drink than tap water

Reassuringly enough, Ofwat’s regulation of tap water providers makes it safer to drink than bottled water.

The bottom line

Funnily enough, Evian written backwards spells ‘naïve’. Whether you end up bottling it up, or bottling out, the bare facts will enforce key truths; tap water is abundant, safer to drink and essentially tastes the same, if not better. It costs 7,000 times less than bottled water and is 10,000 friendlier for the environment. Reusing plastic bottles would also be environmentally apart from being of pure convenience to you. Ultimately, a water filter will enhance your tap water experience – fortifying it further with what it already contains. Try it. You’ll be making a bigger difference than you think.