of consumers often refill a bottle with tap water rather than buy a new bottle


63% 34%


of adults in the UK feel uncomfortable asking to refill a reusable bottle at a restaurant or café when they haven’t bought anything


C


old water has become a hot potato, polit- ically speaking, as concern about the environmental impact of the seven bil- lion-plus bottles of water sold annually in the UK moves up the agenda. Institutions from the BBC to Glastonbury have announced bans on sales of plastic water bottles, with perhaps the most symbolic being the decision from October 2018 for Parliament to stop selling bottled water, a move said to eliminate 120,000 plastic bottles from circulation annually. In the same month, the European Parlia-


ment voted to implement wide-ranging legis- lation aimed at tackling the problem of plastic pollution, which, alongside a ban on single- use plastics from 2021, will require 90% of plastic beverage bottles to be collected and recycled by 2025. As with so many things around Brexit, how much of this EU legislation will apply to the UK remains unclear, but in the meantime the bottled water juggernaut continues to roll. In its UK Plain Bottled Water Report 2019, consultant Zenith Global reported that UK bottled water sales increased by 7% to 4.27


36 | Drinks Guide 2019


“By filtering water in-house, customers enjoy delicious drinking water, freshly served with unrivalled


purity and taste” Paul Proctor, EcoPure Waters


billion litres in 2018, with growth driven in part by the summer heatwave. Plain bottled water, which accounts for 86% of the market, rose by 7.9% to 3.4 billion litres, while flavoured, functional and juicy water sales rose by 7.2%, with the sugar levy intro- duced in April 2018 having a limited impact as brands reformulated. Zenith Global expects the market to grow by 3% to 5% annually to 2023. For a look at the foodservice sector, analyst Mintel published its latest UK Bottled Water


Market Report in March 2019. This estimates that on-premise sales of bottled water were worth £780m in 2018, up from £765m in 2017. By volume, Mintel estimates that 298 million litres of bottled water were sold on-premise in 2018, up 2.1% from 292 million litres in 2017. Further consumer research in the report


found that: ● 75% of consumers who have consumed bottled water in the past three months think the amount of plastic waste gener- ated by bottled water is concerning;


● 66% think it’s easy to recycle plastic water bottles;


● 62% think the potential for micro- plastic in bottled water is concerning, with 60% concerned about micro plastic in tap water;


● 68% trust bottled water companies are operating in a sustainable way.


Mintel also found that 63% of consum- ers often refill a bottle with tap water rather than buying a new bottle. In March, Pret A


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