Saving our planet: The bottled water nightmare
When bottled water entered the UK market a generation ago, its arrival was met with general incredulity. Bottled water was something we consumed overseas where the quality of tap water could not be assured. In the UK this was unnecessary because the quality of UK tap water was among the worlds safest.
How everything changed, except of course the safety of our tap water. Thanks to brilliant marketing which made bottled water ‘cool’ the UK single-use non-returnable retail bottled water consumption has grown from 80 million litres annually in 1980 to nearly 3 billion litres presently!
It has taken the likes of Blue Planet 2 and some effective marine awareness campaigns to awaken the UK public to the implications:
Of those 3 billion litres most are used and disposed of instantly with serious implications for litter, energy waste and landfill.
- Less than 20% of current single use plastic water bottles are recycled.
- Annual UK landfill usage is estimated to be the equivalent to two new Wembley stadiums.
- Up to 14.6 million tonnes of plastic enter the ocean every year, with growing patches of plastic waste already covering an area 166 times bigger than London.
Throughout this period of madness, UK Tap Water quality has remained among the world’s best, piped to every home, business and public location by the most litter free method possible.
