I've just read an article on the irish independent about how in america bottled water is slowly slowly slowly going out of fashion again and people are reverting back to tap water. Apparently the regulations for tap water are far more stringent than those imposed on the bottled water industry and people in major cities are being promoted to use there own water at home and hence help to reduce waste from those empty bottles.

I've always drunk tap water since a child. Its always to me seemed so much healthier than water sitting in a plastic bottle on a shelf for weeks and weeks. When i moved here the water was just fantastic and freely available from water fountains all over the city too. When i go to the gym i fill my sports bottle up from the fountain outside it before i go in.

Well i guess my question is this and particularly for Switzerland due to their high quality of water......why do people buy so much bottled water here. Its absolutely everywhere. People buy 12 litre packs of it in shops and you seem to be frowned upon when you order a tap water in restaurants. (I can understand if thats your only drink but if you have already ordered something else then whats the hassle??)

Anyways I'm just wondering what other people think. would you buy a bottle of Evian in a restaurant rather than some tap water. Would you buy a new bottle of water rather than fill your empty one up at a water fountain??

Cheers

B

Sorry, love. This topic has been beaten into the ground repeatedly. Please peruse some of these theads.

http://www.englishforum.ch/daily-lif...tap-water.html
Hot water from Tap

There's also partly the belief that mineral water or carbonated water is better for you than tap water because of the minerally/carbonaty goodness.

Brian, the eyes have it

I've heard locals complaining that the tap water isn't good. Imagine!

Plastic-bottled water is yucky and will kill ya. Glass-bottled is better for your health, but only makes sense to buy it if it's with Bubbles. Common-sense, innit?

Are you simply feeding jamesk another thread ?

dave

Sorry I should have done a little search first

Ah well off to look for a new topic


Boo to bottled water!!!!

Not at all. Although I can see why the concern after just looking at one of those threads and where it went

Alot of people here prefer sparkling water, Frizzant. That is why they are usually buying bottles. We drink tap water and Brita it because in some parts the calc is so high. The tap water in the U.S. I would never drink and have not for 12+ years unless I just had too. Even my mom is from a small town in Pennsylvania and she started drinking bottled as do her friends. The water in the U.S. always smelled like chlorine to me and I could always tell the difference. Swiss water is excellent and always seems so cold right out of the tap

I don't like plastic-bottled water either - it's bad for the environment - but I always go for the still bottled water when I order it at restaurants. The bubbles (CO2) I feel aren't particularly good for you.

Yes, the US and other regulations for tap water are more stringent then for bottled water, but those regulations are concerned with things like ensuring that there is enough poison in the water to kill micro-organisms that may be breeding there - not at ensuring that you get the best possible drinking water. In Switzerland they seem to prefer to use Ozone rather then Chlorinate the tap water, which is better, but the the ozone does make the water a strong oxidant - ie aging, so bottled mineral water might be better from that perspective even in Switzerland.

Water from many of the fountains in Switzerrland is untreated mineral water, filling your bottle with that would be a great option.

At the risk of opening up the same can of worms:

'The Evening Standard (UK - e) has launched a campaign to make London's tap water freely available in restaurants and bars. Water On Tap aims to make asking for and consuming tap water socially acceptable in every eating and drinking venue."

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...ant/article.do

'Socially acceptable', that's the bit that caught my eye. How many of you actually ask for Hahnen- or Leitungswasser at restaurants here? I do, very occasionally, if the server is nice (and then s/he gets the money, that I saved, as Trinkgeld).

In Malaysia, the tap water was getting worse and worse tasting (despite boiling) since the 1980s, so I resorted to bottled water. The alternative was to use a fancy and expensive filter system.

Here, I am so happy to be able to drink cold water straight from the tap.
Hurrah!

I watched this episode of Panorama (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programme...ma/7247130.stm) a few weeks ago about the boom in demand for "posh" bottled water. I wonder how "socially acceptable" it is in London to buy the ruinously expensive water from Fiji when the population surrounding the source is forced to live off the filthy and disease-ridden stuff from the streams.

I wouldn't dream of buying bottled water if the tap water is potable, which it most certainly is in Switzerland.

The funniest bit of the documentary was that they got so-called experts to blind taste a dozen or so different waters and most of them rated Thames Water's tap water as the most expensive and luxurious.