L’eau de tap
I thought I’d share our green column from this week’s The Wharf newspaper:
Thames Water might be testing our patience digging holes in the road all over the place, but they get one thing right: our tap water is rated top for quality in the country. It recently rated higher than mineral water in an expert taste test organised by Tom Aikens. And in a survey by trendy tap water campaigners We Want Tap, 84% of people couldn’t even identify the Thames tap water amongst a line up of bottled waters which are worth around 500 times the price. ‘Water just tastes like water’ was a typical response.
Apparently we Brits consume about 3 billion litres of bottled water a year, at a cost of £1.7 billion. Much of it travels huge distances to reach us: transporting is estimated to cause 33,200 tonnes of carbon emissions per year. Add to that the sins of the plastic bottles, using up oil to produce and 90% of the time ending up in landfill, or as environmental pollution, and it’s a pretty costly exercise for the planet as well.
It’s only H2O after all, and if most of us can’t tell the difference, why are we paying the bottled water industry so much for something we can get on tap? Co-founder of Green Thing, Naresh Ramchandani identifies a social stigma surrounding asking for tap water in restaurants. Tap water is the Green Thing for August, and they are hoping to switch this around and instead create a stigma around bottled water akin to that around 4×4 drivers.
Other campaigners including London on Tap and the Evening Standard’s Water on Tap are encouraging London’s restaurants to make tap water more freely available, and We Want Tap are playing the industry at it’s own game by creating a brand and marketing strategy for our humble l’eau de tap.
It seems to be catching on. Hip ethical clothing store Howies has a tap for thirsty shoppers to refill their own bottles. Brita has recently teamed up with Orla Kiely to produce a desirable ‘Wottle’ made of recycled plastic adorned with Orla’s signature stem print (matches my handbag perfectly thank you). For a more manly option, try outdoor company Sigg’s sleek aluminium bottles. Or just co-opt an old Evian bottle, and swig your tap water with pride.
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