| Reverse osmosis is a technique perfected by NASA to purify fluids on spacecraft it is the finest filtration known.
Tap water in the UK is perfectly safe. But it doesn’t always taste, look or smell as good as many of us would like it too. Impurities that affect your tap water's taste, odour, and colour include:
Chlorine: Chlorine is used nationwide in our water supply as a safe disinfectant. It has a bad taste and odour.
Fluoride: Fluoride has been linked to adverse health affects including cancer, brittle bones and thyroid disease and can cause teeth to mottle.
Sediment: This is inorganic matter or natural vegetation. Sediment can cause build up in household pipes and bad tastes and odours.
Water Hardness: Hard water contains dissolved minerals such as magnesium and calcium. These 2 elements in time cause limescale to build up in kettles, hot water appliances. It also creates a bad taste.
Heavy metals such as lead, copper and aluminium are often present.
Filtered vs Bottled
How much the recommended eight daily glasses of water will cost clearly depends on what water we choose to drink.
The table below demonstrates comparative costs:
Water Cost / 2 litres
Mineral / Spring £0.89p
Table (bottled filtered water) £0.27p
Brita filtered £0.05p
Reverse Osmosis £0.01p
Bottled Water And Its Effect On Our Environment
Roughly 1.5 million tonnes of plastic is used every year by the bottled water industry, and around a quarter of the 90 billion litres of bottled water drunk each year is consumed outside the country of origin, adding to greenhouse gas emissions.
We might as well drink water from the tap and save all this waste.
(Friends Of The Earth)
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