http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20895902

Dunno what to think about that. Wonder if it covers flavoured water... You sure as hell wouldn't fill a bottle from my tap

No but I refill mine from a drinking water fountain in the office.

Awesome. Less plastic waste hopefully. A step in the right direction.

Says the man with shares in Coke, the obvious "good alternative" that most people will be forced to switch to when they get caught short. Or are they banning the small bottles of that too?

Not everyone manages to plan their life around carrying personal water supplies at all times - like you would in a desert! I've always carried tap-water in the car when I can, but I seriously can't carry the 2 litres around with me that I need on a long day in town. I need to stop for re-fills and bottled water is a blessing compared to the choice we had when I was young.

The only way this could work without harming people is if every street corner has a drinking fountain.

Most of us don't need "water on tap" via a bottle. I see young kids coming into the surgery and taking a swig of water every 30 secs like their life depended on it. God knows what'd happen to them if it were banned.

I use 500ml and 750ml bottles for water but only if I know there's a risk of a problem eg going on a day trip somewhere I've never been, on a car journey longer than 20 miles, etc. However, as JJW009 pointed out, what happens if you'rs out and about for an extended period of time (or in hot weather) and need water? Certainly water is a better choice than any soft drink. Would you really want to lug around 1L bottles? A 500ml bottle tucks easily into a jacket pocket.

Plan ahead slightly and bring your own bottle?

Not sure about you but I reuse water bottles hence I'd need a bottle to begin with. Given the concern over leeching, I usually only keep the bottle going for a week max.

There's any number of water bottles for sale that don't leech BPAs. Lots of staff at work use them, because the air con at work (former electronics factory) is really aggressive.

Exactly why we have bottled water too. The air con makes your throat really dry without it.

So what is the problem with your tap water? I live in a hard water area but it is still drinkable.

Know when you add a fluoride tablet? That. Or at least that taste, dunno if that's actually the problem.

I do, but as I said there's a limit to what you can carry - especially when you have a load of other equipment to lug about. I think I sweat more than some, especially in hot weather when I'm working hard all day. The 500ml I carried from home would be gone often before I'd even reached site.


The water at our old office was truly disgusting. It tasted like mouldy old pond water. It was OK once you'd boiled it, but I actually spat it out the first time I tried it.

Well in which case water filters are a good alternative to tap water. Filter the water and use re-useable bottles. There are plenty of workarounds which are a lot greener than small plastic bottles.

That does nothing to address the problem I've said three times now: there's a limit to what you can carry. The 500ml I carried from home would be gone often before I'd even reached site.

Trust me, bottled water is ridiculously expensive and I'm incredibly tight so I only buy it when there is no alternative. If we had public drinking fountains, then I'd use them instead. But we don't.

At work, we just drank tea or coffee. As I said, the water was OK when it was boiled and personally I'm not a fan of filters - the jug ones are environmentally unfriendly and expensive to run, and I was hardly likely to pay for the rented offices to have a permanent one fitted!

We rarely buy small bottles, mainly when we are going on a longer bicycle ride or longer walk, then we pack small bottles.

But there is no waste here, they are recycled. You pay between 25c and 50c a bottle as desposit, which you get back, when you return the bottles. The PET bottles are crushed on the spot and recycled, the "proper" bottles are reused several times, I think the plastic cola and water bottles get reused about 10 time, or until they become damaged, glass a lot longer.