Bottled Water

Speech by Cllr Roz Smith delivered to County Council on Tue 1st Apr 2008

It is just water isn't it? One might ask what difference accepting this motion would make. I believe we all need to be aware of the small changes we can make to improve the County Council's carbon footprint. This motion proposes just one for the Cabinet to consider. The environmental cost of purchasing bottled water is well documented.

The charity Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming, has published a piece entitled 'Have you bottled it? How drinking tap water can help save you and the planet'. This reveals that despite bottled water costing around 500 times as much as tap water people still turn a blind eye to the impact of buying bottled water.

To bottle, transport, dispose of, and even to recycle bottled water containers requires a massive amount of energy. To me it seems environmental madness.

It transpires that our every-day hydration (eight glasses a day is generally thought a good amount) can be met by a low carbon footprint (the mains structure is comparatively efficient and uses little energy) that is rigorously tested (by the Drinking Water Inspectorate) to standards above and beyond its bottled cousin and which in the event of any contamination would be immediately recalled - again, this is not the case for bottled water. All we consumers need do is to turn on the tap.

There are occasions where public water systems have struggled with breaches in water quality, but a great thing about public water systems is that they make information available about local water quality; the same can't be said for the bottled water industry. Purity and cleanliness rules are more strict on tap water than they are on bottled water. For example, a quick browse of the guidelines of the Standards Unit of the Health Protection Agency shows that acceptable levels of bacteria are higher in bottled water compared to tap water.

Food and Water Watch emphasises the fact that bottling water depletes groundwater, increases toxic emissions and damages road and other infrastructure. In the near future, those who carry a pristine water bottle could look like bad citizens.

This is just a small step the cabinet members could take towards lowering the Council's carbon footprint and ask for your support.