Today saw the start of the annual spring onslaught against the bottled water industry and has restarted the debates in our office regarding bottled water . We thought we ‘d share some thoughts with interested parties.
It is commonplace at this time of the year for the media budgets of the large utility companies to be spent attacking bottled water while propounding tap water. A cursory glance at the front page of a London Utility company website shows their rolling news banner promoting the Londonontap scheme – and their spokesmen were involved today in a debate on Radio 4 about the pros and cons of bottled water.
In defence of bottled water, the Natural Hydration Council have launched a spring campaign for UK consumers regarding the importance of hydration – www.yououghttodrinkmorewater.com – to argue against the position put forward in the media campaigns of the large utility companies. Firstly we feel the use of “ought” in a website name is lazy, “should” is a more suitable word. Past this level of criticism we think that the counter arguments are well researched.
One argument put forward by the Natural Hydration Council (NHC) is backed by evidence and deserves further exposure. People often do not drink bottled water in replacement of tap water – but rather as a replacement for soft drinks that are the only alternative choice when in shops and travelling etc etc. This makes perfect sense and it certainly cannot be argued that soft drinks are more hydrating than bottled water.
However through the aforementioned “ought to” website the arguments for bottled water are massively simplified and culminate in the very old and dated list of 10 reasons to drink more water. This to us is a bad example of a dumbing-down for consumers that in fact fails to put across the important research they have done
The debate regarding the ethics/carbon costs/costs of bottled water is a media favourite at this time of the year and for us marks the start of Spring. It is also one that we are keen to play a part in – with the proviso that the debate is educated and that cheap soundbites about “Fiji Water” are left out of the debate. Our plumbed water coolers provide a perfect balance between keeping people in offices and homes hydrated while having little carbon footprint.
For more details on our company’s environmental stance and our plumbed water cooler services in London please look at www.thewatercoolercompany.com or call 0845 500 4455.
