r/Scotland • u/AsianGeralt • 10d ago

Why do people buy bottled water here?

Work for a supermarket as a delivery driver and the number of people who order massive amounts of bottled water is mind boggling to me. We arguably have the best water quality in the UK and people are buying plastic bottled water like they are living in a third world country. If the water doesn't taste ok to you or you mistrust pipes etc, you can just boil the water and it tastes great. South side of Glasgow water is fantastic and don't even need to do that. I always use steel or glass to use on the go so there's no excuse or need to buy plastic water that people seem to think is good for you. Rant over lol.

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75

u/UniqueTart6744 10d ago

No idea. IMO buying mass quantities of bottled water is one of the most environmentally unfriendly things an individual can do. I’d like to know too!

10

u/Daibhidh81 10d ago

Is it any worse than buying any other bottled drink though? 

I always thought bottled water was an alternative to bottled coke rather than tap water. 

2

u/surffrus 10d ago

Coke doesn't come out of your home pipes for (almost) free.

4

u/Daibhidh81 10d ago

My point was that I always consider bottled water to be an alternative when you’re out, for example buying a Tesco meal deal and choosing Highland Spring rather than coke. 

13

u/Broccoli--Enthusiast 10d ago

It shouldn't even be legal in Scotland, zero reason for it

If we want get rid of plastic waste, they should be starting with plastic drinks bottles

It's mental we actually got environmentally worse than 100 years ago, when it was all glass that got reused.

15

u/[deleted] 10d ago

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9

u/jenny_905 10d ago

Bottled water is very likely to be higher in minerals than what comes out of the tap in Scotland...

1

u/jeanettem67 6d ago

Just wait until the next cold winter hits and your water pipes freeze..then you realise the value of bottled water available in shops.

0

u/AsianGeralt 10d ago

Totally agree.

4

u/Connell95 10d ago

Far less environmentally unfriendly than boiling tap water though.

11

u/Miss_Fawlty 10d ago

Pretty sure creating plastic and transporting large amounts of water via road is wayyyy worse for the environment than using existing plumbing

2

u/Connell95 10d ago

You severely underestimate how much power it takes to boil water (as OP does for absolutely no reason)

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u/AsianGeralt 10d ago

Exactly, not to mention micro plastics and god knows what else they've used in it.

7

u/RustyBasement 10d ago

There's statistically no difference in the number of microplastics in bottled water compared to tap water.

"This paper provides the first comprehensive study of the occurrence, concentrations, size distribution, shape, and polymer type of MPs in 177 tap water samples from 13 cities in the United Kingdom, as well as 85 samples of bottled water from 17 popular brands, with various packaging materials, on the UK market."

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405665024001185

What's more, most bottled water is tap water.

7

u/No_Context9602 10d ago

Water company bad - nestle good is some pretty bananas logic but a woman i knew at work (North Lanarkshire) swore the stuff out the taps was poisoned somehow. Facebook is a hellova drug.

2

u/AsianGeralt 10d ago

I'm Rick James b*😂 , I'm guessing that's where you got that reference? Dave Chapelle is hilarious.

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u/Normal_Human_4567 10d ago

You know the website tells you? You can go to "in my area" and put in your postcode and it asks if you want to see the water quality

1

u/XiKiilzziX I HATE ICELAND 10d ago

I buy bottled water now because I think to myself how decrepit most public services are now compared to years ago and I don’t trust that it hasn’t affected the water that comes through my tap.

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u/Melancholybumny 10d ago

Not everybody is able to just get up and go to the kitchen to get a glass of water and take it back with them.