Pouring money away
We like to complain about rip-offs in this country, but sometimes we only have ourselves to blame. Last year, Irish consumers spent hundreds of millions of euro on 135 million bottles of water while everywhere, outside a handful of blackspots, good quality drinking water flowed freely from taps.
The average price of a litre of bottled water in Ireland is around €1.50 - and it sells for several times that amount in many restaurants and cinema foyers. It is not just financial cost but bottled water’s environmental impact that is making a growing number of people uneasy, as the BBC’s Panorama programme showed last week when it put Britain’s love affair with the bottle under its microscope.
Worldwide, consumers spent more than €30 billion on bottled water last year, while 2.5 million tonnes of plastic bottles ended up in landfills or as litter. In the US, 30 million water bottles are dumped in landfills every day.
The production of a litre of bottled water emits hundreds of times more greenhouse gases than a litre of tap water. According to the Earth Policy Institute, around 2.7 million tonnes of plastic are used for bottles each year and making all the bottles for the US market takes 17 million barrels of oil - enough fuel to keep half of Ireland’s two million cars motoring for a year.
The most sobering statistic comes from the World Health Organisation, which has reported that at least 1.6 million people die each year from drinking contaminated water: 90 per cent of these are children under five. Significantly more is spent in the developed world on bottled water every year than would be needed to eradicate the deaths of all those children infected with fatal waterborne illness.
Is it any wonder that on Panorama , British environment minister Phil Woolas said it was “morally unacceptable to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on bottled water when we have pure drinking water, when at the same time one of the crises facing the world is the supply of water. There are many countries who haven’t got pure tap water. We should be concentrating our efforts on putting that right”.
The Tory shadow environment secretary Peter Ainsworth agreed and described the popularity of bottled water as “an ecological nightmare”. He said it raised questions about “the basis on which we have constructed our economic lives. By any rational standard, it’s crazy to be importing water from countries far away when there’s perfectly good water in our taps.”
This week Thames Water, supported by Friends of the Earth and the British government, launches a campaign aimed at persuading restaurants, pubs and hotels to make tap water more easily available to customers.
It is not just in Britain where the tide is turning. A growing number of top restaurants in the US, where the bottled water market is worth in excess of $11 billion (€8 billion), have stopped selling bottled varieties in favour of filtered tap water due to environmental considerations. San Francisco has banned city employees from using public money to buy imported water, while in Chicago a five-cent tax on plastic bottles has been introduced.
Other US restaurants persist with the fizz, however, and New York’s Ritz Carlton has even employed water sommeliers to guide diners through its expensive European waters.
While there are ripples of concern in Ireland, we have yet to see a serious backlash against bottled water. It is not uncommon to find restaurants selling bottled water for €6 a throw, while theatres and cinemas are often guilty of charging audiences even more - one Pricewatch reader contacted us recently after being charged €3 for a 250ml bottle of water.
BOTTLED WATER HAS the highest mark-up of any item on a menu, which explains why many restaurants push it at the expense of free tap water. There are exceptions however, and some of top Irish restaurants, including Patrick Guilbaud and L’Gueuleton, offer tap water alongside still or sparkling water.
Although Green Party leader John Gormley was appointed as Minister for the Environment last year, the Government has yet to adopt a strong policy on bottled water. This is perhaps because many citizens in recent months have not been able to drink tap water because of serious contamination.
A spokesman for the Minister told Pricewatch that buying bottled water was a matter of choice for consumers. He said that the Government’s priority was to make sure there was good quality drinking water freely available.”The most important element of our water policy is to ensure that through investment, everyone has access to safe, good quality drinking water,” he said, adding that over the last decade, there had been a multi-billion-euro investment in the water system and in excess of one million homes now have “the best quality water imaginable”, a comment that would no doubt draw mirthless laughter from the residents of Galway and Ennis.
Oisín Coghlan, director of Friends of the Earth in Ireland, says people should question why they are spending money on still water, which, he says, most people would find indistinguishable from tap water. “When you stop and think about the monetary cost and the environmental cost, you very quickly conclude that it cannot be a very good deal for consumers.”
Does anyone from the government ever expect to be taken seriously on the topic of water quality in the West of Ireland? We spent a few months with a third world water supply in Galway city, and there are regular reports of other problems up and down the country.
I’d agree in principle with the suggestion that bottled water is a terrible waste but I suspect hundreds of people in Galway were convinced very effectively by the government to not trust their tapwater again.
Comment by smulcahy | February 25, 2008 at 10:13 amWater isn’t the issue, the containers are the issue. If people didn’t buy bottled water, they would buy something else in a plastic or glass container, and water is definitely the healthy option.
The only way to go on this is to do what Germany has done and introduce a deposit on all bottles and cans which can be reimbursed at any retail outlet. But then the Germans have been getting it right with their crates of water and beer all along - not to mention their public transport system, their health care system, their preschool facilities, etc. etc.
Why is the Irish government so very bad at finding solutions?
Comment by clare lynch | February 25, 2008 at 10:39 amThink about how many bottles of water get thrown away at airport security points due to the ban on liquids.
Instead of allowing conumers to empty the bottle they have and then refill from a water fountain inside the “secure” departures gates, consumers are forced to buy yet more water at even more exhorbitant prices than a local supermarket has. There by adding to the mountain of plastic waste.
People buy bottled water because there is a dearth of water fountains and public taps in cities from which to refill already empty bottles.
Comment by laura | February 25, 2008 at 11:19 amThe issue of bottled water needs to be tackled in a high profile cmpaign to match that of the marketing that made it so popular in the early ninties.
Yes, in this day and age with so many critical environmental problems, the notion of buying water when we have a bountiful natural resource is a moral crime! Its wasteful,convenience consumerism at its best and the offenders should be made feel guilty.It should be second nature to fill up a glass bottle or similar container before you leave the house, just like it is to put “bags for life” in the car before you go to the supermarket.
Do to bottled water drinkers what has been done to smokers and then those who ignore climate change and the impact of our lifestyles and rampant consumerism on this earth might just open their eyes.
Comment by Sarah | February 25, 2008 at 1:47 pmit’s unfair to criticize the Ireland for drinking bottled water in the past year following on from the several cases of contamination, and posting of boil notices. The average member of the public is not going to spend the time and effort boiling gallons of water and waiting for it to cool so as to make it safe to drink when Dunnes Stores are running a 2 for one special on 5-litre bottles.
Comment by owen | February 25, 2008 at 6:45 pmOne thing put in place in Galway was stations in shops where you brought your reusable containers and paid a more reasonable price for drinking water and less environmental impact.
Comment by Marie | February 26, 2008 at 11:40 amFor the diehards who insist bottled is better than tap this seems a reasonable compromise and I cannot see any reason why this cant be more widely available.
Filtration systems for home water supplies are also available and a great option. These range from simple refillable filter jugs to more sophisticated supply filter systems. Coming from an area where the lime content in our water supply would kill a kettle every couple of months we’ve filtered every cup of water to enter our kettle or pass our lips for many years and its part of our routine now.
BTW, a couple of medical studies have linked increase in consumption of bottled water as contributing to increased levels of tooth decay in children due to the lack of flouridation in most bottled waters. (Source ADA American Dental Association). Its not the biggest culprit, increased consumption of sugary snacks, fizzy drinks and fruit juices are of course doing much more damage. But it is considered a factor and the ADA recommends to dentists to advise parents against overuse of bottled water.
It is interesting that the Irish have such a love affair with bottled water and clearly demand high quality water. It is a pity that our Government and the international community puts so little emphasis on the supply of quality water to those in developing countries. 1.1 billion people globally don’t have access to safe water and even more staggering 2.6 people don’t have access to a decent toilet which alongside hygiene plays such an important role in preventing the 1.6 million deaths (1.8 m in UNDP Human Development Report of 2006) from diarrhoeal diseases. Irish Aid doesn’t put enough emphasis on water and sanitation as a part of tackling poverty and achieving the health related Millennium Development Goals. We as a society recognise the importance of water quality. Why don’t we demand Irish Aid do the same in relation to overseas development aid.
Comment by Niall | February 26, 2008 at 5:17 pmTelling people to drink Irish tap water is in theory a good idea.
In practice the water is not clean and has chemicals like lead, arsenic and fluoride added. I would only recommend drinking Irish tap water only to someone I hated. Fluoridating water for tooth health is like recommending smoking to clear the lungs.
I have written to the Ministers of Health and Environment but have never received any coherent answers. I have been told all kinds of stories about missing surveys and to go look for them myself because the DOH doesn’t have any copies. I have also been told a cock and bull story about how lead is below WHO levels. You would have to be mentally defective to defend the addition of lead and neurotoxins to the water.
Fluoride is is industrial waste rebadged as a medicine. It is unregulated and any “co-products” that come with it like lead and arsenic come regardless.
We started adding these chemicals in 1965 and they originally came from Albatross in New Ross for free. We now perversely pay for this crap.
The ADA has also recommended that children under 1 don’t receive fluoridated water. The State has taken an ala carte attitude to their advice and decided that it was in their own interest not to pass this information or advice onto the Irish public.
Before this is dismissed as a cranky eco warrior I was born into a house owned by Albatross.
So to sum up. Bottled water is expensive but at least it conforms to some kind of standard and doesn’t have heavy metals. Drinking water from the tap is cheaper in the short term but the long term effects of chemicals that accumulate in handy places like lead and fluoride do in the brain cost you your health in the long term.
They choice is your own but personally I don’t drink tap water. I don’t earn a whole lot so the argument that buying water is a rich mans game is a red herring. I would rather pay the money and not have the problems associated with exposure to chemicals that we should have stopped adding years ago.
The rest of Europe bans it. For inexplicable reasons we won’t. Drink bottled water.
Comment by Billy | February 27, 2008 at 10:15 pmI’m not sure what our water is like out here in West Dublin but I buy a bottle of water about once every 2/3 weeks and then refill it for work every morning. In most of our offices there is no access to a tap - except in the toilets, but there is access to Tipperary Water. I have a funny feeling my boss would say less about me running to the Tipperary Water cooler every twenty mins than running to the toilet.
Comment by trix | February 28, 2008 at 11:36 amRelated topic if ever so slightly off the main subject. In the good old days I used to fill a 500ml bottle with juice and take it on the plane with me. Now of course, you can’t do that. You have to buy (very overpriced) water or juice when you’ve gone through security. Some airports do have water fountains but if there are any in Dublin Airport, well I haven’t found them. And don’t start me on the cost of parking there…
Comment by John Connolly | March 3, 2008 at 1:03 pmTwo clarification to Billys posting as he did misrepresent the ADA and European stances on water flouridation.
The ADA recommends that Flouridated bottled water is not marketed to children under 1 year old. This is quite different to what Billy stated the ADA has said and the difference is significant in any discussion on the topic: The full quote from the ADA is “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced that it will allow bottlers to claim that fluoridated water may reduce the risk of tooth decay. “Whether you drink fluoridated water from the tap or buy it in a bottle, you’re doing the right thing for your oral health,” says ADA executive director James B. Bramson, D.D.S. “Thanks to the FDA’s decision, bottlers can now claim what dentists have long known—that optimally fluoridated water helps prevent tooth decay.
”The ADA agrees with the FDA that this health claim is not intended for use on bottled water marketed to infants for whom lesser amounts of fluoride are appropriate. The appropriate amount of fluoride is essential to help prevent tooth decay. But fluoride intake above optimal amounts creates a risk for enamel (dental) fluorosis in teeth during their development before they erupt through the gums. ”
Also, the practice of water flouridation is not banned in the rest of Europe. It is not widely practiced but that again is quite a different thing from a ban.
Comment by Marie | March 3, 2008 at 3:56 pm