Stop buying bottled water now!

There's one thing I have never understood about their Germans: they claim to be concerned about the environment and then they go and haul crates of bottled water up to their flats. Why?

Germany has good tap water. Well, the town I live in does. I only ever buy bottled water for guests - and even then, they can't always tell the difference between tap water and plain bottled water. 

I used to teach two Korean brothers who claimed not to like drinking tap water, so I'd buy plain bottled water from the Arabic-run shops nearby (very cheap). But as I find buying bottled drinks wasteful, I would often just refill the empty plastic bottles with cold tap water and then pour it out into their glasses. Did they complain? Did they pull a face and shout, "Ugh, tap water!" Did they heck. They couldn't tell the difference.

And what is with Germans and 'Sprudelwasser' or carbonated water. It's acidic. Why drink it?

But the real problem with bottled water is that it uses plastic and plastic uses oil. Here is a mind-blowing article that makes it clear how pernicious buying bottled water is:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/05/environmental-impact-of-bottled-water-up-to-3500-times-greater-than-tap-water

I quote: 

"The impact of bottled water on natural resources is 3,500 times higher than for tap water, scientists have found."

and..

"Research led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) found that if the city’s population were all to drink bottled water, this would result in a 3,500 times higher cost of resource extraction than if they all drank tap water, at $83.9m (£60.3m)a year.

Researchers also found the impact of bottled water on ecosystems is 1,400 times higher than tap water."

and

"In the US, 17m barrels of oil are needed to produce the plastic to meet annual bottled water demand. In addition, bottled water in the UK is at least 500 times more expensive than tap water."

So, folks, please, be as green as you claim to be and drink the flipping tap water. You're paying for it already.

I'm off to bed now, and while I'm reading a book on the local artist Joseph Beuys, I'll be sipping a glass of cold tap water, or as I like to call it "feinstes Düsseldorfer Leitungswasser".