How much are you paying for water?

You could be paying nearly 6 times more to satisfy your thirst than to fill up your car!  At $3.33 a litre for Mount Franklin and a eye watering $8 or more a litre for Voss compared with the average petrol price of $1.35 a litre for Premium 91.

In Australia plastic bottled water is a $500 million a year business and if you buy a bottle of water every day it is costing you a fortune when they could be drinking water from your tap for a fraction of that cost.  The number of Australians buying bottled water has increased 8% from 2014-15 mainly due to clever marketing.

And just to put that into perspective, a study by consumer group Choice found that drinking 2 litres of tap water a day works out to be $2 per year, while consuming the same amount of the bottled water can cost almost $3,000. The average cost of a litre of tap water in Australia is just .001¢. Then of course you have to think of the millions of plastic bottles that get thrown away and not recycled. All going to landfill.

So, why are over 5 million Australians forking out so much money for something that could be had at a fraction of the cost?

Well, most of it comes from the marketing. Like displaying bottles with snow capped mountains and rain forests which sparks a pure, fresh visualisation among consumers who link bottled water to nature. By emphasising the natural and untouched quality of their water, these brands are implying, without stating outright, they are better for the consumer than tap water.  This message appears to be resonating with more women than men. Not only do they drink more of it, but more women agree that ‘bottled water is better to drink than tap water.

Obviously, if you are out and about and you are thirsty then you are more than likely to pop into a deli and pick up a cool bottle of water. Australians between the age of 25 and 34 are also the most likely to purchase the bottled form of water. And, sorry to say, compared to men it is female shoppers who are driving the bottled water explosion and buy nine out of 10 of the top brands – including Mount Franklin, Natural Spring Water and Pump.

So, what do you do about it…well, first of all, buy a personal water container. One that you can carry around with you. Preferably not plastic, but if you must then buy one that does not contain BPA (BPA can seep into food or beverages from containers that are made with this plastic additive.) Then fill it up with  fresh clean filtered water from a Ceramic Water Filter that will cost you less than $0.04 cents a litre. No throw away plastic containers…water that is free of bacteria and harmful pollutants and inexpensive to boot. What more could you want.