We drink an average of two liters of water a day, it’s a daily subject, and everyone has their own water…in fact…In general, there are two reasons why people buy bottled water instead of tap water : taste and apprehension about its quality.
Fears that are not always justified
As for the taste, it varies from one city to another and it’s very subjective…all waters have a taste. And on quality, overall in France we have very good quality drinking water which is both closely monitored but also very controlled, but on this subject we are not all in the same boat.
Traces of pesticides in tap water
It is true, then at very low levels, most of the time below the authorized thresholds but we can ask ourselves the question in the long term, just like mineral waters which sometimes contain minerals in large quantities which is not not necessarily good for your health.. We also learned that we find microplastics in many water bottles…
Tap water much cheaper than bottled water
40 times cheaper in reality….0.003 euros per liter against 0.13 euros for the cheapest bottled water. So if I summarize: 2 euros 19 per year for tap water, 87 euros 60 for bottled water, and of course we multiply by the number of people at home..
Yet in France we are the 5th largest consumer of bottled water in the world : 25 million per day, 21,000 since the beginning of this column!
Ecologically there are also real consequences.
A plastic water bottle is 100 ml of petrol and 2 liters of water…only one out of two is properly recycled. This is clearly a big ecological issue.
To find out if the tap water is of good quality with us, there are online tools. You can find it on the francetvinfo.fr website and you can enter the name of your municipality directly to get an idea of the situation. I randomly typed Caen and discovered that a sample revealed a quality limit exceeded in July (which does not mean that it is serious but we have access to the information), then I I tested Gordes (Vaucluse): RAS, and finally Charlieu in the Loire: 5 samples above the limits on the basis of 9 in all.. For the quality in general otherwise go to the UFC card what to choose.
In any case, test, find out, it may decide you to drop the bottle of water which is expensive and which is not without risk, and think about filters or a purification system if the taste bothers you too much!
Do you know a way to save money, or earn more money? Contact Valère Corréard.