Is buying a home
water dispenser better than buying bottled water?
If tap water simply doesn’t cut it for you and you regularly
buy bottled water to drink instead, could a filtered water dispenser for the
home be a worthwhile investment? We take a look at both options and compare
them for cost, sustainability, water quality and convenience.
Cost
Bottled water may seem good in the short term - the average
cost of a litre of bottled water is 43p. But in the long term, you could be
spending £2000 more over three years than you would if you invested in a
filtered water dispenser for the home.
●The cost per week of Virgin Pure in the first three
years of ownership works out at £4.78
1.
●The cost per week of bottled water for a family of four
consuming six litres of water a day (our recommended daily fluid intake is
around 1.5 litres a day) is £18.06
2. Nearly four times as much.
Of course, if you drink even more purified water from your
dispenser, it doesn’t cost you any more.
1. Based on initial cost of purchase plus monthly
subscription price for full replacements and servicing
2. Average cost per litre based on 6 x 1.5l bottle
pack, best selling 3 on ocado.com 14/2/2022
Sustainability
Buying bottled water is clearly not sustainable. You’ll be
adding nearly 600 times more plastic to the recycling pile across a year than you
would if you relied on a water dispenser at home. And this is only if you
choose to recycle your single-use plastic bottles. 91% of plastic water bottles
aren’t recycled. You could be adding over half a ton of plastic waste every
year to the growing piles that end up polluting our oceans.
1 A Virgin Pure home
water dispenser is the more sustainable option as it results in the least
amount of plastic put into recycling every year - just 1 kg.
2
1.584 kg - based on 4 bottles per day (6l)
at 40g weight per empty 1.5l plastic bottle (www.plasticseurope.org)
2. Based on a filter weight of 530g
Water quality
Scientists recently found that people who regularly drink
bottled water have twice the normal amount of microplastics floating about
their guts. 15 different types of microplastic were found in people’s faeces.
PET, used to make water bottles, was the most common.
1
Tests
revealed that 93% of bottled water shows 'some sign of microplastic
contamination'
2 and can contain ‘a few hundred’ pieces of
microplastic
3. There were twice as many plastic particles in bottled
water as tap water.
4 Virgin Pure’s triple filtration process will
remove microplastics from your drinking water.
Also, when stored, bottled water can potentially breed high levels of
bacteria, especially if not refrigerated.
5 Our home water dispenser contains a UV lamp
which kills any bacteria in the water. Therefore, you’re far less likely to be ingesting
microplastics or drinking potentially high levels of bacteria if you go the
Virgin Pure way. We even leave in all the natural healthy minerals you need,
such as calcium and potassium, so it’s like having mineral water on tap.
1. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.1c039...
2. 93% of bottles tested showed some sign of
microplastic contamination. An average of 325 microplastic particles per litre
of bottled water was found:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fchem.2018.00407/full
3. News.sky.com 2019
4. Orb Media Study, 2018
5.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7556123/Microbiologist-warn-water-bottles-accumulate-bacteria-like-barnacles-boat.html
Convenience
While bottled water may seem convenient, it’s not so
convenient for the planet. And it takes up the most space in your fridge. Once
you install a home water dispenser, not only do you have unlimited purified chilled
water on tap, you also have hot water at the touch of a button.
●We spend nearly one-and-a-half hours a week waiting for
the kettle to boil
1
●It takes nearly five hours for a bottle of water at
room temperature to chill to under 6℃
2
●You need around 560 square cm in your fridge to store
bottled water
3,
that’s the size of a pretty big cake (or two). We know which we’d rather have
in our fridge.
With a Virgin Pure home water system, you never have to wait
for hot or cold water, you never run out, you don’t need fridge space and you
don’t need a kettle. Now which seems more convenient?
1.
https://www.tameside.gov.uk/EnergyEfficiency/Top-Tips-%E2%80%93-June-Don%E2%80%99t-Fill-The-Kettle-Too-Full#:~:text=People%20on%20average%20boil%20their,just%20to%20run%20your%20kettle.
2.
https://www.omnicalculator.com/food/chilled-drink
3.Based on average dimensions of the top 5
best selling 6x1.5l bottle water packs on Ocado.com 5/2/2021 and average
7200sqm fridge size:
https://homeappliancegeek.com/uk-fridge-and-freezer-dimensions-and-sizing-guide
Totting all those facts and stats up, investing in a hot and
cold water dispenser at home is definitely better for people and planet than
continuing to buy bottled water. Make the switch now!
