can we do without plastic bottles?

It is the best-selling product in supermarkets: six billion plastic water bottles are sold each year in France, or 89 bottles per inhabitant each year and enough to fill seven Olympic swimming pools each day. Out of ten glasses of water consumed, six come from the tap and four from a bottle. Depending on the brand, bottled water can cost up to 300 times more than tap water.

What alternatives?

Plastic bottles are by far the most polluting waste in the world. In France, only half of them are recycled. However, many alternatives exist, carafes, filter systems or carbonated water, as many possible uses as there are consumers. A father recently changed his habits; his son likes stinging water, so he invested 70 euros in a device that allows him to make sparkling water at will.

Filter jugs promise to rid tap water of heavy metals or limescale. It costs 60 euros for cartridges per year. 20% of French people have a carafe of this type. It must be kept in the refrigerator, change the filters regularly and drink it within 24 hours to avoid creating breeding grounds for bacteria. “These filters represent additional pollution which we can do without with very simple actions such as using a glass carafe which we decant in the refrigerator for example”, recalls Raphael Guastavi, deputy director at Ademe. Health agencies assure us: tap water in France is monitored and generally of excellent quality. It is also the cheapest option.

Among Our sources:

an American study, published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences January 8

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2300582121

Non-exhaustive list