Consumer watchdog, Choice says that Australians are paying 2000 times the price for bottled water when compared to conventional tap water.
According to Choice, major players in the bottled water market including Active Organic, AquaPura, Nature’s Best Organic and Coca Cola’s Pump all offer health promoting names but are essentially packaged tap water sold at hugely inflated prices.
A review by Choice revealed that Australians consume 600 mega litres of bottled water per year equating to $500 m industry.
Choice spokesperson Tom Godfrey says that consumers can pay up to $3.88 for a litre of bottled water, while a comparable amount of tap water costs a fraction of a cent.
“If you drink two litres of water a day straight from the tap, you’ll pay $1.50 a year. Drink the same amount from single-serve bottles and you’ll be $2,800 out of pocket,” said Godfrey.
“When you consider consumers are paying $3.88 for a 600ml bottle of Mount Franklin water when they could be paying $0.002 for 1 litre of Sydney tap water, it’s a clear case of consumers being brain-washed into thinking bottled is better – which simply isn’t the case.”
As well as the cost of packaged water being exceptionally expensive, the environmental impacts of the bottled water industry also poses a major concern.
Choice estimates that 60 percent of PET bottles go directly to landfill and Clean up Australia cited plastic bottles as one of the top ten rubbish items collected on clean up Australia day.