Restrict bottled water ads and tax shrink-wrap to cut UK pollution

June 12, 2023

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Restrictions should be put on bottled water advertising and a 10p tax should be added to shrink-wrapped packs to curb the UK’s 10m bottle-a-day habit, according to campaigners hoping to tackle the plastic pollution crisis.

Despite the supposed plastics backlash inspired by TV shows such as the BBC’s Blue Planet, big water brands are forecast to chalk up growth of more than 10% over the next four years, equivalent to an extra 280m bottles, a new report by the consultancy Retail Economics says.

The report, commissioned by campaigners – including the groups Refill and Whale and Dolphin Conservation as well as the filter firm Brita – argued that brand advertising played a “critical” role in burnishing the “desirability” of bottled water.

The creation of dedicated brands has seen bottled water consumption in the UK increase from just one 300ml can per head in the mid-1970s to 37 litres a head in 2021, according to Retail Economics’ chief executive, Richard Lim.

Britons spent £1.6bn on branded and supermarket own-label bottled water in 2021. This used about 3.5bn bottles, or 10m a day, Lim estimates. Brands are the driving force behind the industry’s growth, accounting for £1bn of sales and 2.5bn bottles. Buoyed up by advertising, this footprint could be 2.8bn bottles by 2026, Lim said.

“We need to make changes to turn the tide on this issue before it’s too late,” said Lim of the white paper, which recommends restricting advertising and promotions and putting environmental labels on bottles.

While carrying a reusable water bottle has become the norm for many people, the study found that just over half of the UK population, or 51%, drink bottled water once a week or more. The frequency was highest among millennials, at 61%, based on a sample of more than 2,000 households.

The research established that more than half of all bottled water was being drunk at home or at work, places where tapwater is readily available.

“Plastic bottled water is a scar on our society,” said David Hall, the UK managing director of Brita. “Plastic bottled water takes about five seconds to make, five minutes to use, and a staggering 500 years to break down in landfill. It’s one of the main culprits of the worldwide plastic pollution crisis.”

While in recent years multipacks of baked beans, soup and tuna have been stripped of plastic packaging, the study found that 90% of bottled water on a typical supermarket shelf was still encased in a wrapper. This plastic-on-top-of-plastic accounts for 1m pieces of wrap every day.

A small number of big companies are behind the majority of branded bottled water sales in the UK. They include Highland Spring; Danone, which owns Volvic and Evian; and Nestlé, owner of Buxton mineral water.

The report suggested that the Advertising Standards Authority and Competition and Markets Authority should review the environmental claims and credentials of bottled water manufacturers.

The authors recommended that the government should treat bottled water in the same way as it does foods sold in England that are high in fat, salt or sugar, removing them from prominent positioning in shops.

On packaging, it says wrappers on multipacks are “tantamount to a plastic bag” and should be treated like one. It suggests a 10p charge under existing plastic bag levies, or that they should be treated like plastic straws and stirrers, which are banned.

A spokesperson for Danone UK & Ireland said its Evian and Volvic brands “enable consumers to make healthier hydration choices they can enjoy conveniently” and that in the UK and Ireland it had committed to using 100% recycled plastic in its bottles by 2025.

“Increasing recycling rates also have a role to play, and a unified, consistent deposit return scheme is vital to this. Any restrictions on advertising for the category would risk inadvertently driving consumers towards less healthy beverage options.”

A spokesperson for the Natural Source Water Association (NSWA), the UK industry’s trade body, said its members were focused on reducing their packaging footprint.