Drinking bottled water should be made as unfashionable as smoking, according to a government adviser.

 

"We have to make people think that it's unfashionable just as we have with smoking. We need a similar campaign to convince people that this is wrong," said Tim Lang, the Government's naural resources commissioner.

 

Phil Woolas, the environment minister, added that the amount of money spent on mineral water "borders on being morally unacceptable".

 

Their comments come as new research shows that drinking a bottle of water has the same impact on the environment as driving a car for a kilometre. Conservation groups and water providers have started a campaign against the £2 billion industry.

 

A BBC Panorama documentary, "Bottled Water: Who Needs It?", to be broadcast tomorrow says that in terms of production, a litre bottle of Evian or Volvic generates up to 600 times more CO2 than a litre of tap water.

 

Source : Sunday Telegraph

Well I can't speak for every area but certainly in my area we have been advised not to drink tap water

 

I only ever use bottled water and even use the stuff to clean my teeth

Just buy a Brita water filter... I can't say I agree with bottled water.

Tap water in the north of Scotland tastes much better than bottled water, yet people still buy loads of it up here. I just fill my bottle from the tap.

 

I didn't know about the environmental impact though...interesting.

I never drink bottled water at home ..... only on holiday.

 

The water up here tastes ok ;)

 

I don't know if bottling water is immoral - but the prices they charge are!

I always buy bottled water since I moved to Leicester ... I loved tap water back home (Durham), but the stuff down here tastes foul, and the quality ruins my hair when I wash it down here, awful stuff.

 

But back home I have a bottle that I fill up from the tap :)

:angry: What next. Flushing the toilet too many times is bad for the environment. Tap water where i live is very rarely clear and sometimes comes out cloudy and tastes like S**t. Bottled water is much cleaner and fresher for human consumption and the government should spend less time on matters like these and more time on things that are important like Education and the NHS. :angry:

WTF?! :rofl: :rofl:

 

Bit drastic.

:angry: What next. Flushing the toilet too many times is bad for the environment. Tap water where i live is very rarely clear and sometimes comes out cloudy and tastes like S**t. Bottled water is much cleaner and fresher for human consumption and the government should spend less time on matters like these and more time on things that are important like Education and the NHS. :angry:

Entirely agree. Phil Woolas position as a minister should be brought into question over this statement.

Tap water is undrinkable in much of the country, people have died from contamination in tap water supplies as brought to the governments attention by the people of Camelford

Nice to see the rest of the press catch up with a story which was in the Observer last Sunday. I've always considered bottled water to be the greatest marketing con in history. The cost of a year's supply of drinking water from the tap is roughly one penny. If you are daft enought to drink bottled water the cost is about £500. I think I'll stick to the tap.

I think I'll stick to the tap.

But it tastes c**p :(

I have lived in several countries and always used tap water and never gotten sick or anything from it. I have bought bottled water every now and then but almost always against my will (been on holiday in a restaurant and ordered water and they bring a bottle and a glass - which is ridiculous in countries with good water. And I bet it isn't just that it brings more revenue for the restaurant but also because of tourists from several Western countries, including US & UK that seem to think you cannot drink tap water never ever abroad no matter in which country you are). So, if tap water really is unsuitable it, of course, is common sense to use bottled water but if the tap water is drinkable then people should be envirmental-friendly enough to use tap water. Maybe there should be extra tax for bottled water in areas with high standard tap water.

To be honest, I reckon the bloke has something.. If you think about it, all the plastics that goes into manufacturing the damn things, what happens to them afterwards...? Unless you're lucky enough to live in a local council which is very proactive in recycling, it just ends up on some bloody landfill.... Totally destructive to the environment.... bottled water would be totally unnecessary if we actually demanded that our reservoirs became publically owned again, and that the water and sewerage systems in this country were far better maintained than present... You seriously have to ask yourself just why it is in a technologically advanced country such as ours that some parts have water that is practically undrinkable without filtering it....

 

Bottled water, however, IS a big fukkin con... I'd rather use a Brita filter than take part in this gross marketing scam....

Bottled water tastes heaps better and is more convenient when your out. I am very picky about drinking water and think tap water is tastes aweful.

I think that bottled water is overpriced, and it does create alot of pollution. I use water bottles, but I refill them with tap water that is filtered out with Brita...I would suggest that.

I stopped using bottled water a few weeks ago. c**p for the environment and there are easy alternatives.

how is drinking bottled water as harmfull to the environment as driving a car a kilometer?... i dont buy that for one moment, after all the car has to be made and oil refined and transported to the garage...

 

my work area encompases 3 local councils, all of whom have re-cycling facilities for plastic bottles, are there ANY councils that dont?... not a problem.

 

 

bottled water is a con, its riddiculous!

 

HOWEVER.... i do drink volvic lemon and lime flavoured as an alternative to lemonade as theres practically no calories, lemonade is syrupsville

I am very picky about drinking water and think tap water is tastes aweful.

 

You Aussies have a good reason though, your Govt sees fit to pump your drinking water full of sodding flouride (something Naomi Watts said on the thread concerning flouridisation of water), which is probably why it tastes sh!t.... I honestly cant blame you guys for going for bottled water, it aint like the Govt is giving you much choice....

 

how is drinking bottled water as harmfull to the environment as driving a car a kilometer?... i dont buy that for one moment, after all the car has to be made and oil refined and transported to the garage...

 

Refined oil is used in the manufacture of plastics mate.... :P ;)

 

I just think that buying bottled water should be rendered totally unnecessary... We're paying a fukkin' fortune to these b/astard private water companies, and for what exactly....? Water that tastes like sh!t and aint treated properly....? And then the silly fukkers go off and sell reservoirs to private land developers, and LO and behold, you have bloody water shortages and threats of hosepipe bans..... Morons..... -_-

 

tap water tastes just fine in my area, so it'll do.

 

i know in the canaries you have to drink bottled water, well the resort i was at you had to, cause the tap water was unsafe