Tap it

Home

Tap it

Drink tap, use bottle

Impact

Effort

What

Water is the liquid of life, and it literally falls out of the sky for free. But the magic of marketing and the madness of men has led to us to spend £2.4 billion a year (WHAT?!) on bottled water in the UK.1

Disposable plastic water bottles have a hugely damaging environmental impact, particularly when it comes to polluting our oceans. Drink tap water for the next two months, save money and reduce waste while rehydrating the natural (and low impact) way.

Why

One of the spells cast by marketing is that bottled water is healthier than tap. That’s a lie. In fact, depending where you are in the world, there are often tighter regulations on the quality of tap water than bottled water.2

What’s more, microplastics have been found in 93% of bottled water brands (although admittedly, the percentage is also high for tap water).3 We don’t know what the health impact of this is yet, but the World Health Organisation recently launched an investigation to find out.

So don’t fall for the lie, health is no reason to buy bottled.

25% - 45% of bottled water comes from the same place as your tap water.6

How

Giving up bottled water for a few months (and beyond) is pretty straightforward really:

  1. Buy yourself a reusable bottle (or, for bonus points, use a bottle you already own, plastic or otherwise).
  2. Fill it up
  3. Drink.

If you’re a fan of flavoured water, try putting a slice of lemon, orange or lime in your water bottle at the start of the day. Or, if you’re feeling extra fruity, mix it up with strawberries, mint, watermelon, raspberries or cucumber.

If you’re out and about and need a top up, ask nicely and most cafes, restaurants, pubs, bars will fill it up for you. Keep an eye out for the Refill logo to spot extra friendly water-filling stations, or navigate to one using the Refill App.

One of our favourite reusable water bottles is from GiveMeTap. Buy one of their handy sized metal bottles and not only do you get a convenient and easy-to-clean bottle to drink from, you will also fund five years of clean drinking water for someone in Africa.

References

  1. The Guardian
  2. The Guardian
  3. Orb Media
  4. BBC
  5. The Guardian
  6. UpWorthy
  7. Berners-Lee, M (2010). How Bad are Bananas?