Australians spent more than half a billion dollars on bottled water last year, but was it worth it?
We all know that drinking water is good for you, and plenty of us are happy to pay for it.
Bottled water is promoted as being fresh and free of impurities, but just how true are those claims?
A growing campaign is trying to stop the flow of the bottled water industry.
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The mouth-watering $60 billion bottled water industry turns over more than half a billion dollars in Australia alone.
In fact we drink 700 million litres of bottled water each year.
Jon Dee from Do Something is an active campaigner against bottled water. “It would cost them less than a cent to get the water out of the ground, and yet you're paying $2.50 to $3 a litre, or more for bottled water. That's twice the price of petrol."
According to Geoff Parker from the Australasian Bottled Water Institute, when it comes to bottled water, it’s all about convenience. “Our research shows the number one reason why people buy bottled water is for convenience."
Convenient? Sure. But is bottled water any healthier than what we can get out of the tap?
Today Tonight commissioned two independent labs to analyse seven unidentified samples. Six were high-selling bottled waters, and the other everyday tap water.
The lab tested for:
- mineral content
- sodium
- potassium
- magnesium
- chloride
- sulphate
- phosphate
- flouride
The results were surprising.
Tap water had lower sodium levels than some of big name brands, and slightly high levels of calcium. Otherwise there was hardly any difference, and no major signs of contamination.
On a country paddock, outside Wagga Wagga, at Big Springs water well, liquid gold bubbles to the surface. In this area spring water is just a couple of metres below the ground, and the water is so clean it's ready-made to be mined and pumped.
Big springs has been used by settlers for almost 200 years, but has sold to the public for the just twenty.
“We consume about five per cent of the well’s capacity. so there's an abundance that flows further down into the creek system," Big Springs’ Greg Hanson said.
Greg Hanson and his partner Pat Wilson run Big Springs. He water is pumped from the well by a simple system, similar to a pool pump. Every day Wilson loads it into a 25 thousand litre tanker.
In this fast turn-around business, it’s “48 hours from the ground to the table," Wilson said.
The tankers unload at the company's $1 million dollar processing plant. Most of the business for Big Springs is in big bottles for offices, and some smaller water bottles.
“The water is filted to 0.2 of a micron, and then we sanitise it,” Hanson explained.
The water costs 50 cents to a dollar a litre to produce. Outside this factory the price can rise five times.
“Unfortunately for us it gets marked up a lot after it leaves our manufacturing plant. And I think some cafes sell if for what they think they can get for it, rather than say ‘I'm only going to put 100 per cent on this," Wilson said.
Canberra University has become the first university in the world to ban bottled water sales. Vice Chancellor Professor Stephen Parker says “I think we're the largest community where there's no bottled water available for purchase."
“We couldn't see the case for selling bottled water in circumstances where you’ve got freely available tap water. So we discontinued the sale of all bottled water on campus," he explained.
140,000 water bottles used to be sold here. These have now been replaced with free water bubblers and low- cost flavoured and chilled water dispensers.
Up the road from the University is Bundanoon - the first town in the world to ban bottled water sales, replacing them with tap water.
Parker however is critical of bans, on health grounds, and says “UK research shows that once you remove bottled water as a sale option, 75 per cent of people will move to higher calory options."
Sales of bottled water have plateaued in the past year, as communities, schools, and governments consider ditching bottled water for everyday tap water, or for filtered options.
“At the end of the day it's water in a plastic bottle with a little label. Bottled water is undoubtedly a total rip off and Australians need to wise up to that scam. We have some of the best tap water in the world, and it's about time we starting drinking it," Dee concluded.
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