Inspired by my eco-daughter and her impoverished student friends, my husband and I declined the kind offer of the waiter at my birthday dinner this week to partake of a variety of exotically bottled mineral waters and demanded a jug of tap water. And very delicious it was too.
Across Europe, restaurant diners are baulking at the exorbitant and unnecessary expense of bottled water. Office workers have tap water filtered through water coolers. And Friends of the Earth tells us that the single most effective act that individuals can do to improve the environment is to stop drinking bottled water.
In an article in the Times on Saturday, the UK Environment Minister was quoted as saying that “it borders on being morally unacceptable.” Columnist and restaurant critic Giles Coren writes: “In 2008 drinkers of bottled water are the new smokers.”
What will this mean for the petrochemical industry, where polyethylene and PET bottles are significant drivers of demand?
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