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AIBU

Bottled water

(109 Posts)
Sallywally1 Sat 01-Jun-24 11:17:37

Am I being unreasonable to dislike the amount of bottled water people drink? The UK has the safest tap water in the world and we should be grateful for this. Instead people buy unnecessary, in my view, bottled water and in addition the containers add to the growing mountain of plastic which also worries me.

amazonia Tue 04-Jun-24 12:52:51

I'm always appalled at the amount of bottled water that my holiday cottage guests get through. The tap water here (Exmoor) is pretty good.
I buy bottled abroad when we're travelling - just in case!
For sparkling at home I have a soda stream which we all love.

BeneathTheHowlingStars Tue 04-Jun-24 13:03:52

I have never understood people drinking bottled water when ours, the majority of the time is perfectly safe. If you don't like the taste of it then you can boil it and let it cool before drinking.

PamelaJ1 Tue 04-Jun-24 13:19:59

Tiley

Applegran

We have been advised to be ready for the unexpected and have bottled water in stock. How easy would it be to store tap water for an emergency? And what would you store it in? I too do not want to buy water in bottles. Advice welcome!

Maybe buy an old milk churn, often see them on Ebay. The gypsies use them a lot.

I would use glass bottles as plastic degrades over time and you may find yourself drinking tiny bits of plastic. Not nice.
We used to boil and store water when I was a child. We only had water out of the tap for 4hours every 4 days.
If there is a problem like the one in Devon I think you may need a lot of bottles and somewhere cool and dark.

fancythat Tue 04-Jun-24 13:24:46

amazonia

I'm always appalled at the amount of bottled water that my holiday cottage guests get through. The tap water here (Exmoor) is pretty good.
I buy bottled abroad when we're travelling - just in case!
For sparkling at home I have a soda stream which we all love.

I suspect they are like I am now[I wasnt until 1 year ago].
Scared to drink tap water when away. So err on the side of safety.

missdeke Tue 04-Jun-24 13:49:45

The tap water in my area is so heavily chlorinated it's like drinking from a swimming pool. I can't even use it to boil veg. Very occasionally it tastes like TCP. I have spoken to the local water supplier who said that due to the continual housing developments they have a lot more waste water to treat. I don't use botteld water but I do use a heavy duty water purifier jug. Brita Max used to need the filter changing twice a week and there is only me living in the house.

NotSpaghetti Tue 04-Jun-24 14:04:45

Daddima we had very soft water in my hometown - the first time my husband visited and had a shower he said he didn't think he'd ever rinse the bubbles off his body!

NotSpaghetti Tue 04-Jun-24 14:15:40

missdeke our water in America smelled regularly of chlorine and wasn't nice.

Locals said to put it uncovered in the fridge one day for the next. It definitely improved like that. Chlorine is volatile in water and will disappear (evaporate I think).

GrammaH Tue 04-Jun-24 14:23:03

We're really lucky in that we have our water from a bore hole. It's regularly tested and is pure & tastes of water, not chlorine. DS lives a couple o miles away & has the local mains water, the taste of which is absolutely disgusting. They don't buy bottled water but don't drink it neat from the tap - always with squash or whatever. Normally, we have tap water at the table when dining out but I confess once when we were on holiday in the south west, we did resort to bottled water as the smell & taste of the local tap water was revolting.

Bamm Tue 04-Jun-24 14:23:15

I agree with others who mention trouble with water in Brixham, Churston and parts of Paignton which is still unresolved.
I have a filter under sink but otherwise I drink bottled water. Plastic in my area is collected every two weeks and recycled.
I have two pairs of shoes and a bag made from recycled plastic bottles ( Rothys).
I do think the plastic particles are a problem though.

Jess20 Tue 04-Jun-24 14:27:23

As a frequent resident of Brixham I'm currently quite keen on bottled water. It shouldn't be necessary but unfortunately likely to become something we can't do without. Not green at all so hope for a sustainable solution.

NotSpaghetti Tue 04-Jun-24 14:31:55

We had a well planned for a property we were intending to move to in Southern Ireland.
It all collapsed but it seemed like a good plan.

Bellzy Tue 04-Jun-24 14:48:17

We have a water jug (Phox) to filter tap water and we re-fill any water bottles we happen to buy. The recyclable filter materials cost about £50 a year. Our water is horribly hard and tastes unpleasant.

suelld Tue 04-Jun-24 16:56:41

Look at the amount of Sodium in bottled water- we are warned not to have to much salt in our food, but little warning about bottled water.

missdeke Tue 04-Jun-24 18:04:42

suelld

Look at the amount of Sodium in bottled water- we are warned not to have to much salt in our food, but little warning about bottled water.

Sodium helps maintain blood pressure (according to Google) salt is sodium chloride so maybe sodium on it's own is ok?

halfpint1 Tue 04-Jun-24 18:16:38

If you bothered to read the guardian article I gave at 12.34 you will find, shock, horror, that the EU standards are far higher than the UK ones.

NotSpaghetti Tue 04-Jun-24 18:28:31

I read it halfpint
So our poorer drinking water is clearly another benefit of being "in control".

Though Scotland fares better.

yellowcanary Tue 04-Jun-24 18:53:30

I buy a pack of bottled (plastic) water bottles to keep in the car as I tend to drink a lot - always recycle the bottles. I go through 2-3 refilled water bottles a day in work which comes out of our machine in the canteen, and use refillable or re-use the plastic ones from the tap in the house when not drinking tea/coffee. I don't like sparkling or flavoured waters. I have been reminded by some of the posters that I have a filter jug somewhere - will have to dig it out and see if I have the cartridges for it smile

Catterygirl Tue 04-Jun-24 21:31:33

When I was 38 I took my son to Iraq to meet his grandparents. Unfortunately I got a really bad kidney infection whilst passing the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Since then I’ve only drank bottled water. My husband advised me to do that as he realised how bad tap water can be. I’m told by blood tests that my kidneys are failing but so far so good as no pain or deterioration. I will continue to drink bottled water. Our tap water is terrible here in central London.

MaizieD Tue 04-Jun-24 22:09:54

I know that our plastic usage isn't as bad as in some countries but watch this,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGY4rpOnbhw

growstuff Tue 04-Jun-24 22:20:13

My water comes from an underground chalk aquifer and is exceptionally hard. I always filter water for tea and coffee and keep a glass bottle of filtered water in the fridge to drink. I also have bottled water because I can't keep up with filtering all the water I drink in summer.

growstuff Tue 04-Jun-24 22:20:53

suelld

Look at the amount of Sodium in bottled water- we are warned not to have to much salt in our food, but little warning about bottled water.

Some have more than others. It's worth looking at the label.

Poppyjo Wed 05-Jun-24 04:02:27

I do agree. I always drink tap water. Uk water is good. Buying water must be as dear as petrol,

Interestingly enough I have been told Toronto in Canada has the purest water in the world

Maya1 Wed 05-Jun-24 06:25:22

I have a water filter jug for the fridge and change the filter monthly. We have very hard water here in East Anglia.
I also have a soda stream which gives me sparkling water when l fancy a change.
My milk comes in hard recycled cardboard so no plastic there either.

Bonnybanko Wed 05-Jun-24 06:45:43

I have the best tap water in the whole of Fife why would I buy bottled water?
I drink loads of tap water every day and during the night

JustkeepswimmingDonna Wed 05-Jun-24 12:40:02

Sallywally1 we are on holiday in a hotel in Turkey. They are handing out literally hundreds of bottles of water a day to the guests! Why can't every guest be given a large empty refillable water bottle and scatter chilled water stations around for people to help themselves?! Makes my blood boil. At home I don't like the tap water but I bought a water filter for my fridge which makes the water taste lovely. Also the amount of people that bulk buy bottled water from Costco is ridiculous, and unnecessary.