• A pair of leather shoes takes 8,000 litres of water to produce
• A 4oz portion of beef takes 1,500 litres of water to produce
• 200ml of milk takes 200 litres of water to produce
• 140ml of coffee takes 150 litres of water to produce
• One 40g egg takes 135 litres of water to produce
• 125ml of wine takes 120 litres of water to produce
• As for bottled water, 200ml takes a mere 2 litres of water to produce

Richard's point was this: As it can take up to an extra litre of actual water to make one litre of bottled water, and another seven litres of ‘virtual' water for the processing, packaging and transportation (nine litres in total), and if we all drank our full recommendation of two litres per day, it would still only make up 0.4 per cent of our ‘virtual' water usage per day as the average Brit uses 4,645 litres of ‘virtual' water per day, according to a study by WWF, some of this in clothing but almost two-thirds of this is in products from abroad.

Add this to the fact that more than 75 per cent of bottled water drunk in the UK is sourced from UK producers**, such as Abbey Well Natural Mineral Water, and the bottled water argument now has a completely different angle, doesn't it? It is about consumer choice and whether or not you prefer the taste of naturally filtered, completely additive-free water, which has been bottled at source or tap water.

The concept of tap water may initially appeal to those concerned with the impact on the environment but Abbey Well Natural Mineral Water is British, bottled at source, which fell as rain or snow, long before the age of pollution. The reason it has such a clean taste is because every drop has been naturally filtered through 315 million year old white sandstone, for at least 3,000 years. Natural Mineral Water must come from an identified and protected source and is guaranteed to be consistent in composition and naturally wholesome, without any treatment. Natural Mineral Water status is only granted to waters that can demonstrate they are free from pollution and have a characteristic, stable composition.

*Source: Bottled Water Reporter, Feb/Mar 2008

** Source: British Soft Drinks Association, July 2008

http://www.abbey-well.co.uk/