Eustice bans foreign mineral waters ...

MayBeMaw

The sooner we wean ourselves off bottled water and stop lining the pockets of the likes of Coca Cola, Nestlé, Danone etc the better. Plastic bottles are an environmental disaster and even the manufacture and use of glass bottles entirely unnecessary.
Hands up anybody who carried bottles of water around in their childhood.
(Yes the release of untreated sewage , not to mention agricultural chemicals into rivers was a major error, but we do not drink river water. )

It was rather different then. We played out nearer to home and could get a glass of water if we were thirsty. We didn’t travel far from home and initially just had motorbike and side car then a car when I was about 9/10. First one in our road.

Deedaa

I don't bother with bottled water unless it's sparkling, in which case I drink San Pellegrino. I'm already paying astronomical prices for the Italian rice that I prefer. If I can't buy San Pelly that will really put the tin lid on it.

Have had Scottish sparkling water at a party, it’s lovely. Your also paying for water and not a brand name.

Calendargirl I have to drink constantly or it triggers a migraine. While I’m normally good and have a chilly bottle with me, sometimes I forget and having the option of buying water available is vital for me.
The water in my area tastes awful. My dil when she lived here HATED it had to put a cordial in it to be able to drink it, she was used to New Zealand water I expect. When I went to Scotland the tap water was amazing, and tasted completely different. Very jealous of my cousins water supply.

Sorry am I the only person who finds its beyond weird that people watch what other people drink and where.

it will sound daft when talking about sparkling water but I find San Pellegrino isn't as fizzy as most of the British ones. I don't like water too fizzy just as I can't drink it too cold. It's available in glass bottles as well as plastic.

It was rather different then. We played out nearer to home and could get a glass of water if we were thirsty.

I could be out on my bike for the best part of a day , a journey to Edinburgh (the nearest city) on the bus nearly an hour, I was in school like most people all day but we were not brought up in a culture of eating and drinking “on the hoof”.
However there were drinking fountains in the playground and often in other public places.
We did not snack (other than the odd Mars bar or KitKat) and we did not carry cardboard cups of overpriced coffee on our way to work. We had a glass of water with lunch and a cup of tea with tea and a cup of coffee at “elevenses”
I’m not saying there is anything wrong with choice but with choice come consequences - increased litter in the streets, single use plastic bottles, and - childhood obesity amongst others.
But I will shed no tears for the disappearance of Evian or San Pelly, even if I am quite partial to Badoit as I think much of it was always a scam orchestrated by the manufacturers.
I mean really - if you had told your granny or great granny about buying bottles of water , would she not have laughed in your face and asked What next? Cans of fresh air? (And yes I believe you can buy these too!)

I would be happy to see all plastic bottles of water banned.
There are reusable drinks containers if people need to drink water, filled from the tap. A small piece of lemon makes it taste nicer.
Plastic also enters the body so reducing taking it in through plastic bottles would be a good thing.

MayBeMaw

Growstuff nobody is arguing against adequate hydration.
However it is perfectly possible to drink (tap) water out of a glass with meals or whenever without clutching a plastic bottle at all times.

Agree, totally- but you know very well it was not the point of the thread. As said, I never drink bottled water, and take a re-usable bottle if I go out on long walks, etc.

The irony of the current situation has been picked up by so many. It is about timing ... (I don't know why I tell you this, as I am perfectly sure you know. Good that it has brought you out of your boycott though- welcome back). Just one of the any 'jokes' doing the rounds:

''BREAKING

Downing Street bans import of all EU bottled waters to encourage domestic consumption of pure British bottled waters from our world beating rivers and streams''

It is quite clear in fact that it is a great enticement to deliberately pour raw sewage into UK waters and tell people, region by region. to boil tap water as it is not safe - to switch to bottled water to be safe. But even I can't believe that would be a deliberate advertising ploy.

It's absolutely nothing yo fo with the environment it's a desire to criticise other peoples behaviour as can be plainly seen.

As a child, I used to go on bike rides for the day with friends (Enid Blyton style) and we took a bottle of squash and some biscuits with us.

AGAA4

I would be happy to see all plastic bottles of water banned.
There are reusable drinks containers if people need to drink water, filled from the tap. A small piece of lemon makes it taste nicer.
Plastic also enters the body so reducing taking it in through plastic bottles would be a good thing.

Nope! My water still tastes horrible, even with lemon or lime in it. My drink of choice with a meal is cold fizzy water - and I've never found a tap with fizzy water.

And so did the famous five. In fact those cheeky buggers just asked random hone owners to feed them.

Home owners even. I cant type in the mornings

AGAA4 that’s another reason for not drinking from plastic bottles as our bodies can absorb the plastic particles. This is particularly true for cider in plastic bottles as the acid leaches the plastic out. So glass is better for us and the environment and it would be even better if we reused glass bottles as we used to with milk.

Waters are all slightly different even tap water which is why teas taste different depending where you live but you get used to it. The worst water I’ve ever tasted was at the Pump Room in Bath.

The worrying thing about water is not just the sewerage problem which is worse in flooding but the run off of pesticides and fertilisers which aren’t good either.

Growstuff, If you have a Kenwood Sodastream, and my aren’t they expensive now, you can fizz your tap water. I do that and add my own home made elderflower cordial.

Nope! My water still tastes horrible, even with lemon or lime in it. My drink of choice with a meal is cold fizzy water - and I've never found a tap with fizzy water

Qookers do chilled fizzy water as well as boiling water.
In the course of our years together we twice owned a Sodastream which produced carbonated water, also tonic and ersatz Coca Cola.
Ultimately got rid of it though because bottled water became available although DH claimed it was because it did not also produce the gin to go with the tonic. .

MayBeMaw I am quite partial to Badoit

Badoit announced two years ago that they were going to stop supply in the UK, but I'm not sure if they actually followed through on it (It was only indirectly a Brexit issue, I seem to remember them talking about protecting their source so they had to produce loess and cutting out the UK was the easiest option).

This whole thread is bizarre – people repeatedly posting that fewer French bottles means less plastic (clue: it means less French plastic, but more British if – as Eustice has promoted it – it means higher consumption of British bottled water).

But the thing that is most annoying, and is seen on many other threads – particularly Brexit ones – is the attitude of “I don’t want it, so why should you have it?” (I’m not suggesting that’s what you have done MayBeMaw); and I write that as someone who doesn’t want bottled water.

It's fine to argue that we should be cutting down on single use plastics, and also to point out that we have high quality tap water (or ‘council pop’ as I once heard it called), but then to tell what they can have is beyond the pale.

I drink local. At least it is saving on transportation costs.
When I lived in France it was bottles of Plancoet still water and Badoit sparkling. The tap water was horrible.
Now I drink bottled water from Tarka Springs, filtered seven times, and in bottles which have no chemicals. Our tap water is, however, fine.
A lot of my life was spent in London and I drank tap water all the time because I actually liked it, especially chilled.
It's just a case of finding alternatives to suit, so I can't see anyone losing any sleep over it.
Did you know the Queen drinks Evian bottles of water on her visits away. Whatever will she do?

25Avalon

Growstuff, If you have a Kenwood Sodastream, and my aren’t they expensive now, you can fizz your tap water. I do that and add my own home made elderflower cordial.

But the water still doesn't taste the same and I'd have to filter it before I could use it. It's too much faff. So much easier to buy a (glass) bottle of fizzy water.

The taste of fizzy water particularly is so different in a glass bottle compared with a plastic one. Especially Perrier.

I agree Petera. I wonder how many people have a glass of wine with a meal. I prefer to have a glass of water - and I can taste the difference between brands and tap water, just as I expect others can tell the difference between different sorts of wine.

Doesn't Evian sponsor Wimbledon? What will happen there then?

Bring back Dandelion and Burdock and Tizer in recycleable bottles I say ?

A lot of rudeness from the usual parties on here. Is it REALLY necessary? It is certainly possible to make a point without it.

While I certainly didn't have fancy bottled water as a child, when I was out (far beyond my curfew AND my boundary, but that's a different story) all day on my bike I frequently had a snack and a plastic bottle of drink with me. Hopefully squash, but as we were poor, frequently water. The only problem came when mum put it into a non-drink bottle. She was infamous for reusing any recepticle and I recall drinking from shampoo bottles and having water that tasted very slightly soapy.

It IS highly ironic that despite the daily lowering of UK standards now we're not being held to EU account, that we want to limit trade further. Talk about burning our bridges.

Hope you enjoy your fizzy Coke water growstuff. It might be all you can get here soon. Maybe time to invest in a soda stream?

Josianne

The taste of fizzy water particularly is so different in a glass bottle compared with a plastic one. Especially Perrier.

My preference is San Pellegrino. NOT that I buy it regularly. Too mean for that.