[box border=”full”]CHOICE says Australians’ love affair with bottled water hits where it hurts[/box]
CHOICE has calculated that Australians are paying 2000 times more than the cost of tap water to drink from a bottle even though 93% of households are connected to town water.
Big brands such as Active Organic, AquaPura, Nature’s Best Organic and Coca Cola’s Pump offer little more than a healthy-sounding name, and are basically tap water sold at hugely inflated prices.
The review found that the thirst for bottled water by Australian consumers is topping up a $500 million-a-year industry which delivers 600 mega litres of water annually at sky rocketing prices.
“While a litre of tap water in Sydney costs only a fraction of a cent, consumers can pay upwards of $3.88 a litre for bottled water, with a large proportion of this cost coming from producing the plastic bottle, lid and label – not to mention marketing,” says CHOICE spokesperson Tom Godfrey.
“If you drink two litres of water a day straight from the tap, you’ll pay $1.50 a year. Drink the same amount from single-serve bottles and you’ll be $2,800 out of pocket.”
“When you consider consumers are paying $3.88 for a 600ml bottle of Mount Franklin water when they could be paying $0.002 for 1 litre of Sydney tap water, it’s a clear case of consumers being brain-washed into thinking bottled is better – which simply isn’t the case.”
“When compared to a litre of unleaded petrol clocking in at $1.41, bottled water is leagues away from good value.”
Not only is bottled water hard on the pocket, if affects the environement. Less than half of these PET plastic bottles are actually recycled, while the remaining 60% go straight to the landfill. Clean up Australia cited plastic water bottles in the 10 most common rubbish items picked up on clean up Australia day.
The good news is there are some simply things consumers can do to offset the impact of bottled water on the hip pock and the environment:
CHOICE TIPS
- If tap water is a problem where you live, there are a number of water filters on the market that can help you save money in the long term
- Use a reusable drink bottle
- To find your nearest tap to refill your bottle, check Choose Tap app and if your area is not included, ask your utility or council to provide coordinates to Yarra Valley water
- Contact your local council to for information about maintained water standards and availability of taps in your area.
Read more at www.choice.com.au/tapwater