Is bottled water part of your daily routine or weekly shop? Then you’re probably spending about €550 a year on it, according to estimates from social enterprise Refill.ie. It costs a bit more now with the deposit return scheme adding between 15 to 25 cent to the price.
Householders with poor water quality may have little choice but to buy water, but the rest of us do. Big-budget drinks companies have done a great job of commodifying drinking water in places where tap water is mostly fine.
The three main types of bottled water for sale are “natural mineral water”, “spring water” and “water”. Calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium can be found in both mineral water and spring water. They can give it a pleasant taste and are good for our health, according to Geological Survey Ireland.
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Unlike “natural mineral water”, there is no requirement for the labels on “spring water” or “water” water to state the composition, says the Food Safety Authority. Is there any particular health benefit to drinking that particular bottle of “spring” water or “water” water you’re drinking? Who knows.
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You could be paying about €1.90 for 500ml of something you can get free from the tap.
Whatever about the health benefits of the water itself, drinking it from a plastic bottle can be dodgy. The average person eats, drinks and breathes between 78,000 and 211,000 microplastic particles every year, according to Human Consumption of Microplastics, a study published in Environmental Science and Technology that analysed 26 other studies from around the world.
The biggest known source of microplastic that enters our bodies is bottled water, according to the study. The average number of particles ingested per litre is 94.
What’s so bad about microplastics? We’re still finding out. Although they have been linked to illness, there is currently limited evidence to suggest they are causing significant adverse health impacts – that’s according to a World Health Organisation analysis of current research. That doesn’t mean they aren’t bad for us, it means the quality of the research so far isn’t great.
“There are major knowledge gaps in scientific understanding of the impact of microplastics,” says the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). “There is an overwhelming consensus among all stakeholders that plastics do not belong in the environment, and measures should be taken to mitigate exposure,” says the UNDP.
Have some bottle
Many of us buy water for convenience, grabbing a bottle on the go. Indeed, we’ve reached a point now where people in Ireland spend over €100 million in single-use plastic water bottles a year, according to Refill.ie.
Some 220,000 single-use plastic water bottles are generated in Ireland every day. Not all of them get recycled. About four plastic bottles are found on every 100m of our coastline, according to a Coastwatch Ireland survey from 2019. Things may improve now that we are required to pay for the plastic.
Over 400 million plastic bottles and cans have been returned since the launch of the Re-use scheme in February.
Using a refill bottle instead of buying a single-use plastic bottle will save you money. It will spare us all and the fish from ingesting microplastics too. Fill the bottle before you leave the house – you could look into getting a filter jug or soda maker too. Or you could download the Tap Map app by Refill.ie to find locations in every county where you can drink water for free.
Check your water
Uisce Éireann tests all public water supplies against EU drinking water regulations for things like bacteria, chemicals and metals. If you have any doubts about your tap water, you can check the quality on Uisce Éireann’s website by entering your Eircode.