Tap water vs bottled water: price, taste and environment

In Belgium and the Netherlands, tap water costs roughly €0.005 per litre, all in. Bottled water costs €0.40–€1.50 per litre in supermarkets — 80–300× more expensive.

Environment: 1 litre of bottled water produces up to 1,000× more CO₂-equivalent than tap, according to lifecycle analyses (Adriaanse et al., 2017), plus PET waste and transport.

Taste: tap water with a strong chlorine taste improves after 30 min in an open carafe, or with a simple activated-carbon filter jug.

When is bottled smart? During an official boil-water notice, for infants in high-nitrate regions, and when travelling in countries with unsafe tap water (see our country pages).

Sources: AquaFlanders, Vewin, Adriaanse et al. (2017).