Bottled Water – Does It Really Taste Any Better?

For the past decade or so, sales of bottled water have been steadily increasing by 7 – 8% per annum. The level of global consumption is estimated to have more than doubled between 1997 and 2005.

Around 200 billion bottles of water are consumed every year. The biggest market by far is the USA, which makes up about 25% of worldwide sales.

However, there has been a recent backlash against the use of bottled water. One area of concern is bottled water\’s environmental impact. The actual bottles are usually manufactured from Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is a recyclable material – but the actual level of recycling is held to be lower than 25%.

The manufacturing process, shipping and end of life disposal of the bottles also requires energy, another source of concern for environmentalists. The carbon emissions generated by the production and delivery of one litre of bottled water are 5,000 times higher than those produced for the delivery of a litre of ordinary tap water.

In spite of the marketing of bottled water as healthy, there is no evidence to support the assertion that bottled water is, in developed countries, any better for your health than ordinary tap water. In fact, some bottled waters have been found to contain uranium and estrogenic chemicals. Most bottled waters contain sodium – which is not good for your blood pressure.

Similarly, when it comes to the taste, there seems to be very little evidence to suggest that bottled water is superior to tap water. In the UK, a blind taste test led to London tap water finishing in third place out of a range of 24 different types of water. In America, an episode of \”Penn and Teller\”, which was screened in 2007, showed that diners in a restaurant couldn\’t distinguish between expensive bottled water and water which had been drawn from a garden hose at the back of the restaurant.

The variation in cost between bottled and tap water will vary from brand to brand. However, as a rule, bottled water will cost several hundred times more per litre than ordinary tap water.

Whatever way you look at it, whether from a health, taste, cost or environmental stance, there really isn\’t much to recommend the use of bottled water. If you really find the taste of the water that comes out of your tap at home to be unsatisfactory, then you could always use some type of home filtration system.

A home filtration system is a good solution for when you\’re at home of course – but if you want to carry water to drink with you when you\’re out and about, then you could use, and reuse, a bottle which you fill at home, or the office, before you set off. You could use something like the Wottle, which claims to be the world\’s first designer reusable bottle and is manufactured from recycled material. Or just do some recycling of your own and use an old soda bottle.

Save money with a Brita filter jug – and check out Orla Kiely\’s Wottle – it looks fantastic and is better for the environment.