Luxurious tap water

Sophistication tap water labeled bottles

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Luxurious Tap Luxury Tap, started by two brothers are selling sophisticated, sexy, luxury tap water. They're really only selling a reusable bottle - one that comes with the option of a filter. Filtered tap water. Lovely and simple.

In many places in the world, tap water is a luxury. Clean safe and free flowing water is a privilege that we have living in urban developed areas and, to be perfectly honest, in most of the places in Britain and elsewhere in Western Europe. And, what is even more important, our tap water is clean and safe.

Despite of this many people still pay ludicrous amounts of hard earned cashed on bottled water, which in many cases comes from a municipal supply. There is nothing glamorous or sensible about that. In fact, it is rather stupid.

Tapwater.org and Find-A-Fountain both are working on bringing public drinking water fountains back in use and back per se. And, aside from the fountains they try to establish tap water filling stations across London and, hopefully, the rest of the UK.

Recently, however, I read a comment by someone who suggested that the public fountains would not be safe and hygienic. My question is to why they should not be?

The genius behind Luxury Tap is they're playing up the fact that an elegant bottle and bit of creative branding can change how people consume water. They make a statement that tap water is a luxury and it should be embraced. And this is done through donning a bottle filled with 'the finest filtered regular tap water'.

However, greenwash can also be seen in serious action here as the bottle is made of PET. This is the very same material which the single use water bottles are made from and the advice for which is not to reuse them due to leaching of chemicals, including BPA, into the water.

Luxury Tap, however, claims that the sophistication bottle does not contain BPA, which, in my book, constitutes not just simple greenwash but actual falsehood.

The only plastic that I – and others – would recommend is LDPE and HPDE or, best of all, glass or stainless steel.

PET does contain BPA and other hormone disruptors and thus is not safe whatever any vendor claims.

© 2011