by Michael Smith
A campaign to promote tap water over bottled came a step further to fruition in London this week.
The London on Tap campaign seeks to highlight the environmental consequences of drinking bottled water while driving home the message that the capital's tap water is among the best in the world.
As part of the process, organisers invited designers to create a carafe which will be used in the dozens of eateries and drinking holes supporting the campaign.
The ten shortlisted designs went on display at City Hall on September 15, with the overall winner set to be announced in December.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: "This is a magnificent campaign that will
empower customers in bars and restaurants across the capital to ask for tap water rather than feeling compelled to ask for expensive bottled brands.
"More importantly, drinking tap water will cut the amount of plastic and glass waste that we create and in turn will reduce the size of the capital's carbon footprint.
"The designs exhibited today are testament to talented designers that we have in London and I look forward to announcing the winner in December."
The best thing people can do is to buy a reusable bottle, such as “We Want Tap” or others. Though we must remember that many, except the "We Want Tap” bottle and the newest Nalgene ones, contain Bisphenol A in the plastic whence they are made and Bisphenol A (BPA) has a great number of health issues associated with it. Something that I have written about before and shall be again as new findings have come about.
All short-listed entries will be made into prototypes and judged on November 13 by key figures from the worlds of design, hospitality and the environment, including celebrity chef Aldo Zilli; Zaha Hadid, architect of the London 2012 Olympic Aquatics Centre and Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth. The winning design will be announced in December with a £5,000 prize awarded to the winner. The carafe will be mass manufactured from January 2009 with carafes expected to start appearing across London by April.
Rosie Boycott, Chair of London Food, said: "London is lucky to have some of the best quality tap water in the country and it is a far better choice than bottled water, both economically and environmentally.
"This competition should spearhead London as a sustainability leader by offering tap water first across our hospitality sector."
Personally I still find it rather difficult to actually be given, let alone offered, tap water. When requesting water in a restaurant the question is invariably “still or sparkling” and when I then reply “tap” I have more than once been told that they cannot do that; or I have been told that it will cost the same as bottled water. I beg pardon!
Thames Water sustainability director Richard Aylard, added: "It's wonderful that we've had such a fantastic response from London's designers to our challenge. London's tap water is the best in the world and we should be proud of it."
The London On Tap campaign was launched in February, to promote the serving, and consumption of London’s tap water in its thousands of restaurants, bars and hotels. Since then, sales of bottled water in the UK have plummeted with more consumers switching to tap water as the greener choice.
The campaign has garnered support from celebrity chefs, environmental groups, and even the House of Lords, with thousands of restaurants and bars already pledging their support.
© M Smith (Veshengro), September 2008
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