Bottled water - why?

I agree, there seem to be a lot of people who think their perfectly good tap water is inferior to the stuff someone pours into plastic, transports hundreds of miles and leaves lying around in a shop for months.

However, if they want to waste their hard-earned money I suppose that is up to them.

The environmental concerns are a different matter altogether.

I agree! I understand the need for us all to keep hydrated but it seem there are some who cannot leave the home without water and swig every few minutes. Often it is tap water in a refillable but if the supermarket aisles are anything to go by 1000s are buying bottled water to drink rather than using tap water. In church I have seen people swigging from bottles of water during services! Surely a drink before and then after is sufficient?
Given that it takes about 400 years for a plastic water bottle (milk bottles too!) to biodegrade we are being be swamped by them and infested with plastic!

Some tap water tastes vile ,as if it is full of chemicals. My previous house which is a 5 minute drive from where I am now was awful and we fetched the water authorities out to test it on numerous occasions and they always said "it was fine" so we had to put up with it as I don't remember bottles water being so readily available as it is nowadays ,I think Evian was in the shops but not cheap and big bottles like now. We could never drink water from the tap without boiling and cooling. I don't think water filters existed then either. This was the late 1970s

So people who have horrid tasting tap water are lucky to be able to buy cheap bottled water

and clog up landfill with plastic.... We should just be pushing for better tasting tap water1

I take water to Church in a re-usable bottle PECS, I was left with permanent damage to my throat after heart surgery, from all the tubes etc. I sometimes start to cough after a hymn so take a sip of water to stop it.
I do not use bottled water, although sometimes buy fizzy if I am having a party.

We drink bottled water as here we have water full of all sorts - I filter it before boiling or the kettle needs frequent replacing. Back home in U.K. the water tastes dreadful - all chlorine etc. so I would prefer bottled there too. I would pay extra for a deposit scheme for the bottles if anyone did it.

As a matter of possible interest when anyone is away from home the only water you should give children or babies and also use for gadgets such as coffee machines is Evian as it is the purest - hence the advert with the dancing babies etc.

A lot of UK tap water tastes disgusting with all the chlorine in it.

I think if you are used to it you don't notice so much but if you move from another area you really notice the difference. I grew up drinking London water and thinking the chemical after-taste was normal - but having lived in an area of Sweden where no chemicals were added I now find London water disgusting to drink and buy bottled when I visit.

We like San Pellegrino and have it instead of wine with some meals because we like it.

I buy sparkling water because I like the fizz. If I want still water, I drink tap water but always run the tap for a minute ot two first, which gets rid of any chemical taste.

I think even within the UK the water quality - in terms of mineral conent, not safety - can be variable.

I had success in a different city with a Brita filter jug. I couldn’t get past my reaction that the water there tasted “funny” and was “brown”.

I feel overwhelmed when I go to the grocery store and now see all of the different types of sparkling water available. In our area, there are places that specialize on water tasting now!

20 years ago nursing in an oncology unit we strongly had to advise patients who were immunocompromised not to drink bottled water, usually brought in by well meaning visitors. The reason being that far from being pure the water contained many bacteria that could be harmful to them.
Water jugs were filled with tap water, however the tap water had to be run for at least 5 minutes to ensure it had not been sitting in the pipes for several hours.

I hope all of you who run the water for a couple of mins. are using it to water plants with.
???
I drink fizzy water at home sometimes, I do try to buy it in glass bottles but it is increasingly difficult.

I do buy really cheap fizzy water as I like fizzy water and don’t drink canned or soft drinks, but I never buy float bottled water - except in the Lake District because the water there is ‘orrible.

My neighbour comes home once a week with four dozen bumper sized bottles of water - for two of them. She claims tap water is bad for you as it comes out of the river.

Think the whole 'bottled water' thing has been a very clever con taking in the more vulnerable members of society. When I ran a training department in a large hospital in London, the staff attending courses would have a break, morning and afternoon. We provided tea and coffee for them in our staff kitchen. It tended to be the Support Staff (barely earning much above minimum wage) who would ask me where the water was - I would point to the tap at the sink and explain there was a whole resevoir full. Often they refused to drink this even when I enlarged to poster size a leaflet by an eminent dietician which explained that tap water was usually much purer than the bottled stuff.

Does anyone else remember the 'scandal' a few years ago when a big co. - maybe Coca Cola - was planning on launching a new bottled water here - that is until the press revealed that it came out of a tap in Sidcup!
End of that brand here - I think it was called Dasani - I've seen it in shops abroad.

Not that I would criticise anyone for buying water if their tap water tastes horrible. I've never found that in the UK though I have noticed marked differences, particularly between the Midlands and London.

Personally I think the whole bottled water thing was a very clever marketing exercise - initially by the French, who traditionally did not have safe drinking water out of the tap and so did have a need of it.

Having said that, if we do ever buy a small bottle when e.g. on a long car journey and have run out - or I've forgotten to bring any - I do if poss buy Buxton, or another UK brand.

I don't like the taste or smell of chlorinated water either, but find that a water filter takes this out and makes the water perfectly drinkable. It also stops the kettle and coffee machine furring up!
I do occasionally buy bottles of the cheapest supermarket fizzy water though, as I find it very refreshing.

bring back those water fountains in parks and other places you could refresh yourself with when we were kids. I always carry the same small bottle of tap water and fill up wherever I go when empty. I was told by someone who worked in an overseas hospitals in Bangladesh dealing with water borne stomach infections they advised sun steralisation see this sunshineonmyshoulder.com/how-to-purify-water-using-the-sun// Stop the waste in energy boiling etc. If water tastes vile a slice of lemon or lime makes it palatable.

A blind taste test was carried out about 5 years ago.
On the panel were 2 top chefs (one French) three master tea-tasters, three notable wine buffs and three members of the public from different areas of the UK. All were non-smokers as that can affect your sense of taste.
Thames tap water came out top by a wide margin.

witzend - not Del and Rodney's and the Peckham water scandal? How life mimics 'art' if fools and horses can be described as that - one of my all time favorite shows. Also remember the VOLVIC scandal of contaminated water some years back....

More and more people are now carrying their own refillable water bottles. I think that bottled water may be on the decline. Plastic awareness is helping.

Tap water in the UK is fine; if you can taste chorine then use a filter jug. Buying bottled water is a waste of money. Even using a filter is cheaper.

Sorry...forgot to write that 23 waters were tasted, regional (8) and bottled still (15)

There's an idiot scam in every generation..... bottled water is this generations scam!! I have on occasion bought a bottle of water if I've been out for a long while and am thirsty! Remember water fountains people??! I keep a couple of small bottles water in my fridge... and take them out and give them to visitors who say they drink " nothing but bottled" .... usually with a smug look. I don't tell them it's been decanted from my tap into old ( washed) bottle. I always 'unscrew' the top for them and they always say "how much better it tastes". Pillocks!!