Bottled water sales dry up as London turns to tap

Sales of bottled water are dropping amid growing concern about its harmful effects on the environment.

New figures show that the sales are falling for the first time in years, with independent retail analyst TNS reporting a nine per cent fall of shop sales to £248 million in the year up to last month. Restaurant and water cooler sales have also fallen.

The slump follows an Evening Standard campaign to get Londoners to ditch the bottles, especially in restaurants.

The Water On Tap drive has led to up to a fifth of diners in London restaurants opting for tap water. Green campaigners say it shows consumers are taking notice of the damage to ecosystems caused by the packaging and transportation of bottled water.

Tony Juniper, executive director of Friends Of The Earth, said: "Switching to tap water and refilling a reusable bottle is an easy way for all of us to cut plastics and glass waste and reduce the size of our carbon footprints."

Popular water bottle labels, including Evian, Perrier and Volvic, have come under attack from government ministers, consumer groups and green campaigners. A 500ml bottle of Evian typically costs 42p in a supermarket, or 84p a litre - 840 times the price of tap water, which is 0.1p a litre.

Among the environmental costs of bottled water are the energy needed for production, transport and disposal of the bottles. Compared with tap water, it generates more than 5,000 times the amount of carbon emissions per litre.

Transporting bottled water in Britain is estimated to produce 33,200 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, which is equivalent to the annual energy use of 6,000 homes.

The Government's Food Standards Agency has banned bottled water from its offices along with a growing number of Whitehall departments, including Downing Street. More restaurateurs are also offering dinerstap water.

Food and health lobby group Sustain has been running a campaign for government departments and official bodies to switch to tap water. Campaigns director Richard Watts said: "This looks to be the first ever recorded fall in bottled water sales. It is a significant development. The message about bottled water being unnecessary, expensive and damaging to the environment is finally getting through."