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Water is the liquid of life, and it’s free. But the magic of marketing and the madness of men has led to us Brits spending almost £2billion a year on bottled water.
And the myth that bottled water is healthier is just that, a myth: there are often tighter regulations on the quality of tap water than bottled water1.
Sponsor your friend by drinking tap water for the next two months, save money and reduce waste while rehydrating the low carbon way. You can even do it in style with a handy reusable bottle.
Why?
Waste
Over 1,500 bottles of water are thrown away every second2, adding to our fast overflowing landfills. Perhaps more worryingly, many of these end up in our oceans where they break down into little bite-sized plastic pellets to form the likes of the ‘great pacific garbage patch’.
Health
Water and health go hand in hand, so clearly a bottle in hand can only be good. But it’s the convenience and not the content that’s the key: bottled water has been repeatedly shown to be no better for you than tap.
So why not get yourself a stylish and sturdy reusable bottle that you can always keep with you in times of need?
Taste
When it comes to blind taste testing, even die-hard bottled water advocates prefer the tap variety. Go on, test yourself.
Money
£1 buys you 1,000 litres of tap water in the UK5. How many litres of bottled water can you get for £1? Not that many...
Watch The Story of Bottled Water to delve a little deeper into this slippery industry.
Climate change
Bottled water is 1,000 times more carbon intensive than its tap alternative3, mainly because of packaging and transport.
17,000 cars
could be powered for a year on the oil that is used to produce water bottles in the UK4.
And talking of transport, moving bottles of water around the globe adds about 100g CO2 per bottle to the equation3. Fiji water in the Yorkshire Dales anyone? What?!

How?
1. Buy yourself a reusable bottle
2. Fill it up
3. Drink.
While on the go, ask nicely and cafes, restaurants, pubs, bars will fill it up for you.
If your tap water doesn’t tickle your taste buds, get yourself a jug or on-tap filter.
Got other tips or great resources to share? Please email them over to us at info@thedonation.org.uk
1 - Earth-Policy.org
2 - http://www.theplastiki.com/
3 - Berners-Lee, M (2010). How Bad are Bananas?
4 - BBC - Panorama
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