Minerals Acidity(pH) Aluminum (Al) Bicarbonate(HCO3-) Calcium(Ca++) CarbonDioxide(CO2) Chloride(Cl-) HydrogenCarbonate
Fluoride(F-) Iron(Fe++) Magnesium(Mg++) Manganese(Mn+) Nitrate(NO3-) Potassium(K+) Silica(SiO2) Sodium(Na+) Sulphate(SO4--)
Total Dissolved Solids Zinc(Zn++)
http://www.which.co.uk/advice/switching-from-bottled-to-tap-water/tap-vs-bottled-water/index.jsp
Switching from bottled to tap water Tap vs bottled water
Most of the bottled water we buy is still, so could be replaced by tap water
Britons splashed out £1.68bn on 2.275bn litres of bottled water in 2006, but there are signs that our thirst for bottled is drying up. In our survey,
nearly a quarter of Which? members said they're drinking less bottled water than a year ago and according to one market research agency, sales of
bottled water dropped by 9% in 2007.
There are plenty of good reasons to choose tap water instead:
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Cheap: Tap water costs just 0.22p a litre - much cheaper than bottled mineral water.
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Eco-friendly: 84% of Which? members in our survey believe tap water is better for the environment than bottled.
Taste: Half of Which? members say they can’t taste the difference between bottled and tap water, with 18% actually preferring it
from the tap.
Safe: UK water is some of the safest in the world.
Cost
There's no contest when it comes to cost. At 0.22p a litre, tap water is 141 times cheaper than the bestselling mineral water, Evian, which, even if
you buy it in a supermarket, costs 31p a litre.
The costs of tap water against bottled water
Type of water
Average cost How many times more
per litre expensive than tap water
Tap water
0.22p
n/a
Supermarket own brand
8.5p
39
Evian water, average price
31p
141
£5.58
2,536
£30
13,636
SEI water at Selfridges
Berg at Claridges
Table notes
Where possible we collected prices of one litre bottles, or the nearest available size. We then converted prices to one litre for easy comparison.
Smaller bottles of water are likely to work out more expensive. We checked prices in supermarkets – water is likely to be more expensive if you
buy it from high-street shops or railway stations. The price of tap water is from Ofwat and based on average water rates in the UK
Quality and taste
Checklist
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If you choose tap:
Plan ahead and take a bottle of tap water when you go out
Don't be afraid to ask for tap water when you are in any food or drink establishment
If your employer provides only water coolers in the office or bottled water in meetings, ask it to provide tap water, too
If you choose bottled:
Opt for a UK brand, such as Abbey Well, Highland Spring, Brecon Carreg or Buxton. Some supermarket brands are UK sourced, so
check the bottle
Consider an ‘ethical’ brand but check what they are offering to do before deciding to buy. Some are better than others
Bottled water is marketed as pure, healthy, natural and clean, but that doesn’t mean tap water is unsafe or unhealthy. In fact, the UK has some of
the best drinking water in the world. In our survey, half of our members said they didn’t think there was any difference between bottled water and
tap water in terms of quality and taste.
Taste test
When we asked 48 Which? staff members to blind taste three waters – Evian, Tesco spring and London tap – about half couldn’t identify the tap
water. Overall, the Evian scored highest, closely followed by the tap water and the Tesco spring water, which were rated the same.
Many tasters liked the fact that the tap water was ‘tasteless’. One described it as having ‘no taste at all’ and another said it had a ‘nice and pure
taste’.
Regional differences in taste
UK tap water contains safe levels of chlorine to make sure it’s clean. But placing a covered jug of water in the fridge for a few hours before
drinking can reduce the chlorine taste. Replace any leftover water in your fridge every 24 hours to keep it fresh.
Where you live can also affect the taste of your water. As water journeys through the ground it picks up minerals such as calcium and
magnesium.
Half of Which? members can't taste a difference between tap and bottled water
Water with lots of these minerals is described as ‘hard’ water. This does not pose any risk to health but, if you don’t like the taste, using a water
filter can help reduce these minerals.
Environmental issues
There has been plenty of media coverage about the environmental damage caused by bottled water. The industry’s carbon footprint is made up in
the following ways.
Production
Energy and resources are used in obtaining mineral water from source and bottling it, as well as in manufacturing the actual bottles. As an
example, an estimated two gallons of water are wasted for every gallon of water purified to put into a bottle (purified water is different to natural
mineral and spring water and accounts for a very small proportion of the bottled water sold in the United Kingdom).
Transportation
Plastic bottles take up to 450 years to decompose in landfill
Three in 10 Which? members who buy still bottled water make a point of choosing UK-sourced brands. Many waters are imported from abroad.
Some, such as Evian, come from France, but others come from as far away as Fiji or New Zealand, accumulating thousands of ‘water miles’.
Packaging
Some 83% of the water we buy comes in plastic bottles. Although these bottles can be recycled, most of them go to landfill where they can take
up to 450 years to decompose. The number of plastic water bottles sent to UK landfill sites each year would fill Wembley stadium twice over.
See our essential recycling guide for advice on recycling plastic.
Ethical water brands
In response to growing environmental concerns several ethical water brands, such as Belu and Thirsty Planet, have been developed. They claim to
donate money from each bottle sold to fund clean water projects in places that need it, such as Africa.
'Ethical' water brands fund clean water projects in places that need it, like Africa
Volvic’s ‘1L for 10L’ campaign provides Africa with 10 litres of drinking water for every litre of Volvic sold. Schemes like this, while very
commendable, don’t actually reduce the environmental impact of producing and transporting bottled water.
Which? research
We surveyed 3,039 members of the Which? online panel in April and May 2008 about their water-drinking habits. We asked 48 Which? staff
members to see whether they could differentiate between Evian mineral water, Tesco spring water and London tap water. The tap water was
chilled overnight to bring it to the same temperature as the bottled water.
In April 2008 we collected prices of Evian and five own-brand waters in Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose. We obtained
Selfridges and Claridges water prices directly from them.
http://www.filterforgood.com/facts/
Many people drink bottled water because they believe it to be of a higher quality, cleaner and better-tasting, but that's not necessarily
true.
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In the United States, 24 percent of bottled water sold is either Pepsi's Aquafina (13 percent of the market) or Coke's Dasani (11
percent of the market). Both brands are bottled, purified municipal water.6
Dr. Gina Solomon, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group, told The New York
Times that "there is no reason to believe that bottled water is safer than tap water."7
In the U.S., public water is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which requires multiple daily tests for bacteria
and makes results available to the public. The Food and Drug Administration, which regulates bottled water, only requires weekly
testing and does not share its findings with the EPA or the public.7
http://www.refillnotlandfill.org/ncsp/index.html
The Nalgene Community Sustainability Program was created to help communities and municipalities across the country reduce their carbon
footprints by choosing to use reusable water bottles in place of single-serving bottled water.
 To get started, please click here.
Each year Americans use billions of single serve bottled water, the majority of those bottles ending up in landfills. The general public has come to
depend on the convenience of bottled water, however, that convenience adds up to a whole lot of wasted energy and CO2 emissions.
8 out of 10 plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or end up in
a landfill. (Container Recycling Institute)
The energy we waste using bottled water would be enough to power 190,000 homes.
But refilling your water bottle from the tap requires no expenditure of energy, and zero
waste of resources. (PBS Point of View 2004)
Producing all of the bottles for the US requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil
annually. That's enough to fuel 100,000 cars. (Earth Policy Institute)
 Now with the Nalgene Community Sustainability Program, there is a choice for those organizations that want to take simple steps to improve
the health of the environment, support local tap water and save a few pennies while doing so.
The Program aids municipalities' environmental efforts by extending generous reusable bottle discounts to communities committed to using
reusable bottles instead of bottled water. The Program also helps educate residents on the quality and convenience of their local tap water.
http://news.brunei.fm/2010/06/09/modern-landfill-project-okayed/
Modern landfill project okayed
Goh De No Jun 9th, 2010
(Top) Artist's impression of the completed engineered landfill in Sungai Paku. (Above) Artist's
impression of the completed transfer station in Bandar Seri Begawan. Pictures: Courtesy of
Brunei Economic Development Board (BEDB)
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
A MODERN waste management facility project, located at Sungai Paku and worth $66.5
million, has been approved by His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei
Darussalam, the Brunei Economic Development Board (BEDB) announced yesterday.
Dato Paduka Timothy Ong, acting chairman of the board, said, “BEDB would like to give credit
to His Majesty for consenting to this, as it will greatly help the people of Brunei as it contributes
to a much better and sustainable environment in the future”.
Dato Ong explained that to this day, Bruneians dump their rubbish at Sungai Akar, but now, that
site is beginning to look like a park as the project develops, so they are moving the rubbish to
Sungai Paku to a facility that is technically described as an “engineered landfill”.
He added that the BEDB intends to create a permanent waste disposal site at Sungai Paku, which
is located just before the Sungai Liang Industrial Park (Spark).
“We are finishing the rehabilitation of Sungai Akar currently, so we are moving to the
construction of the permanent waste disposal site. We also realise that the old method of
disposing rubbish is environmentally unsustainable because you throw on the ground and
eventually, contamination occurs. This one is done in such a way that the rubbish and the effects
of it will stay on that site designated for it,” the acting chairman said.
Acknowledging that Sungai Paku is quite a distance from the capital, Dato Ong said there will be
a transfer station located opposite the current dump site in Sungai Akar, where people can still
dispose of their rubbish and will be transferred to Sungai Paku.
“That way, there is minimum disruption because people are already used to going to Sungai
Akar, except now there will be a state-of-the-art transfer station where special vehicles will
transfer the waste to Tutong. That is for us to worry about, all that is needed to be done, is to
deliver the rubbish to that station,” he said.
BEDB has awarded the project to a Singapore-Brunei consortium ST Marine-QAF.
“This contract is awarded based on merit and nothing else. The award price is $66.5 million
which includes the design and building of both the transfer station, the permanent engineered
landfill plus three years of operations and maintenance,” he said, adding that ST Marine is part of
the Singapore Technologies Group which in turn, is part of Temasek Holdings.
“This is a powerful and effective consortium as Temasek Holdings is a well established company
in Singapore and we are all familiar with QAF,” he stated.
Julian Fung, head of BEDB’s Infrastructure Development Division and assistant chief executive
officer, said the engineered landfill at Sungai Paku will prevent any waste liquids from seeping
into the ground.
“The rubbish is disposed in layers and compacted. At the end of each day, the active landfill is
covered up by a thin layer of sand to prevent access to rodents and it continues the next day,”
Fung said, adding that at Sungai Paku there will be access to a drop-off area for residents in
Tutong.
The site is an abandoned quarry which Fung believes can be in commission for at least 15 to 20
years.
Asked what happens to the maintenance of the project after three years, Dato Ong said it will be
passed on to the relevant authorities.
He added that there are a range of options after the three-year contract is up.
It could be outsourced, tendered for another party, but it will be under the Department of
Environment, Parks and Recreation under the Ministry of Development.
Construction at Sungai Paku can be expected early in 2011 after a six-month designing period,
and construction will run for 12 months.
“We will try to start work as quickly as possible as we’ve obtained the authority on Monday and
it takes a month or so to finalise on legal documents,” said Dato Ong.
The Sungai Paku dump-site and transfer station at Sungai Akar will service Brunei-Muara and
Tutong, where most of Brunei’s garbage is generated.
The Brunei Times