Living in a developed country such as the UK, we are blessed with the basic luxury of being able to turn on any tap in the house to access a plentiful supply of fresh, clean water that is completely safe to drink. Since domesticated water supplies started to be chlorinated in early 20th century, we now take our access to safe drinking water for granted. However, the water treatment processes used by water companies can leave tap water with a distinctive chlorinated flavour. While completely safe to drink, a glass of regular tap water isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
The fitness boom of the early 1980’s and the emergence of household brands such as Perrier and Volvic has seen a huge rise in the popularity of bottled drinking water over the last few decades. With countless bottled water brands on our supermarket shelves, offering an array of alternative flavours and extra ingredients, bottled water now generates around £2.5billion in UK sales per year. Although water is a much healthier alternative to sugary soft drinks, the unstoppable popularity of bottled water has an ugly downside: plastic waste.
Around 8 million tonnes of plastic ends up in our oceans every year and within a few decades there could be more plastic than fish in our seas. Taking many decades to degrade, plastic pollution is a huge threat to the marine environment and indeed to human health as it leaches harmful chemicals into the water. Although plastic bottles can be recycled, we Brits fail to recycle around 16 million bottles every day. Indeed, the last couple of years has seen something of a public backlash against plastic, with people ditching their plastic shopping bags and restaurants banning plastic drinking straws.
Unlimited great tasting water straight from you tap
The environmentally conscious are also beginning to think twice about buying plastic bottles of drinking water. From young hipsters to OAPs at an exercise class, the reusable drinking bottle has become a very popular accessory in recent years. A return to drinking good old-fashioned tap water may be coming back into fashion but some people still can’t enjoy that tap water taste.
To get around this, people are beginning to install drinking water filters in their homes. Products such as the iX Clear system effectively purify your tap water to remove unwanted minerals, trace elements, chlorine and other chemicals to give you great-tasting pure water straight from your tap. You will never need to buy bottled water again, staying hydrated and energised, while at the same time helping to protect our environment.