Bottled water is bad news

If you have been into our offices recently, you may have noticed that we no longer have a water cooler in reception and that we have jugs of tap water in our meeting rooms. That’s because the latest research shows that bottled water is bad news for your wallet, your health and the environment.

We first decided to get rid of the water cooler as the result of a brainstorming session last year on ways to reduce our carbon emissions. The reason was to save on the electricity used in powering the cooler.

However, we have now found other benefits:

Cost – bottled water can cost about £1 per litre, whereas tap water is less than 1p per litre

Health – tap water in the UK is among the safest in the world. There have been reports that the chemicals from the plastic bottles can be leached into the water, especially if the water is at high temperatures.

Environmental – the world is polluted by the production, transport, packaging and disposal of plastic water bottles (over a billion per year in the UK). This seems absurd when there is good quality drinking water literally ‘on tap’ in all our homes and offices. 86% of plastic bottles end up as rubbish – that’s 1,500 water bottles every second!

By the way, if you notice that we do still have some bottled water available, it is because we are using up our stocks. We will not be buying any more once these have been finished.