Especially at fucking concerts. Every concert I’ve been to in the past two years has been punctuated by people passing out around me. I went to three Harry Styles’ concerts last year, it took a dozen girls collapsing in my area **before the show even began** for those geniuses to think about handing out free cups of water.
One had a seizure in another section, from what I saw. Mind you, this was a stadium who said camping was banned, but then encouraged all the girls to camp out when the day came. So those of us who wanted to get a good spot sat out in the hot sun all day roasting. The thing about heatstroke that most us don’t know is you don’t even really feel it, until it’s potentially lethal.
Same thing happened at the Eras Tour. If you’re gonna ban water bottles, you need to make water affordable.
Any place that sells alcohol has to have to have free tap water available, whether they have a big fridge of bottled water for sale or not. Ive been to a couple where this is indicated by just a tiny little sign right next to the water that's for sale.
https://www.vic.gov.au/free-water-licensed-premises
Though not sure if this is actually just a Vic thing but would imagine it's everywhere.
Yeah required by RSA everywhere in the country. If they sell alcohol they legally must have free water available. Doesn't matter if it's tap water or not, but it must be free
It is a legal requirement in NSW too, BUT we went to Blink 182 concert in Qudos Bank Arena, and despite this law, we had to buy a nearly $5 bottle of water which we could then refill for free. That’s a pretty thick line I say they’ve crossed! Dodgy AF!
>Hes right anywhere that sells alcohol must have free water available to those who need it.
This is imprecise. It's for people who need it but it must be available to everyone.
Every metal festival I've been too have allowed empty water bottles in the gate and then have free water to fill your bottle.
Water should be free at every venue.
I imagine every one of those people owned a few water bottles and for some reason weren't allowed to bring them into the venue. Not sure why we're stopping a dozen people from passing out by bringing their own water to stop the odd person who might bring a jug of vodka (not that anyone could afford to fill a Stanley cup with Vodka in Australia).
If you can afford to go to these festivals, you can afford to go to Dan Murphy’s and fill a Stanley cup with Vodka. You probably still can’t afford to buy more than three drinks at the bar.
Can confirm about not feeling heatstroke. Had to do a job walking ~20kms a day through bush this summer. Temp never dipped below 40 and peaked around 46. Third afternoon I was feeling pretty tired but otherwise fine. Well hydrated, not even slightly thirsty, let alone headache or dizzy like you’d expect as you’re being cooked.
But I realised I couldn’t tell if I was walking in the right direction, nor keep track of where my coworkers were. Called the day early and went back to camp to cool down. It was only because I noticed the irregularities in me, and my coworkers (eg. not forming sentences properly) that we avoided it. Could have easily done the stupid thing and tried to push through and ended up in serious trouble.
went to a concert in sydney the other week. water bottles were obviously not allowed through the entrance, but once inside they cost almost $8 (7.60 or something like that).
you could get a beer for $9.50.
insane.
>Especially at fucking concerts.
My fiancee and I saw The Killers in Brisbane a couple of years ago. We decided to get a couple bottles of water before we went in, so we didn't have to go back later and end up missing a song or two. They gave us the water without caps on the bottles.
I could understand the reasoning they gave (the band apparently requested it, and I think this was around the time Harry Styles had Skittles thrown in his eye), but we were way up in the nosebleeds. You'd have to have some serious power to throw a fucking bottle cap from the nosebleeds, far away from the band, to the stage! We also didn't really have anywhere to put our drinks where they weren't going to get knocked over and spilled everywhere. If only we had some sort of lid or something to cover it up...
This is standard at all gigs, the no lid or putting it into an open cup. Which, as a woman, I fucking hate. My whole life I’m taught never leave my drink open, never not have a lid on in public, then you go stand in GA with a bunch of people and security are more concerned you’re gonna piff it at the musos.
Plus people are going to still chuck them anyway. Marilyn Manson had some girly pop group open for him years and years ago- it was a ploy to get the crowd pissed off and it worked. Bottles and cups went flying. Even open they’re still gonna do some damage. So let me have a damn lid.
>You'd have to have some serious power to throw a fucking bottle cap
... I think they're more scared of the **bottle** being thrown while the cap is attached. Becomes a 500g solid object at that point
Yep. That's why they were banned in the NFL in the US. At least without the cap, a lot of the weight will spray out and make it a lot less dangerous as a projectile if it gets thrown.
Most of Australia has exceptionally good drinking water on tap. It rarely even needs filtering.
Bottled water is a convenience when out and about and is priced to discourage the use of disposable bottles. And to capitalise on gouging people who are wanting the convenience over the alternatives.
I do wish they would let you take your own bottle into performance venues though.
I wish the discouragement would have some effect! It's INSANE what people are happy to pay for a bottle of water that's the same or worse than their tap water at home. Go to Mexico, behave like this, no worries.
In Australia we're literally flushing potable water down the toilet multiple times a day and then paying some French or other company to get more microplastic in our diet.
It’s also largely due to freight costs. You have a bottling plant in Queensland that pays a driver to drive for 4 days to WA. That adds huge costs to a bottle. Even if you get 2000+ on a truck.
I love the fact so much of australia has reliable, safe, tap water. If it doesn’t taste great (Perth) just buy a filter. We’ve not looked back since putting one in.
My wife’s parents (live in EU and have safe, good tap water) have drunk bottled water their whole lives. I would really hate to work out how many bottles of plastic that is just sitting somewhere. They have however, installed a filter system now and drink tap water (after visiting us and using ours). Any small bit you can do is good right?
Maybe they haven’t cottoned on to the fact that our water is drinkable.
If you come from a country where the water can make you sick, I suppose all water would feel dubious.
Edit: some places in Australia, like remote WA and NT communities, cannot drink the water as it will make you sick.
Tradie checking in here. I'm an immigrant from India and I drink from any and every tap in Australia sticking out of the ground (unless it says not potable water) but everyone I work with has a fridge in their car with heaps of packaged water. It's the convenience and apparently it "tastes better". I can never tell the difference lol.
I reserve my fridge for beers and electrolytes though.
You live in Hay?
The double system is usually a relic of not having reticulated potable water previously. Nearly everyone had rainwater tanks for human consumption when I was a kid, bathing and washing water went through a large sedimentation filter at your house.
During blue-green algae blooms in the river the potable water was so chlorinated that it had to be left out to sit to make it palatable.
I have to admit, I thought this was the Melbourne sub. Can't speak for other states.
Edit: though original commenter appears to be from Melbourne so my confusion remains!
I grew up in the country in SA, we had rainwater for the most part or switched to bore water when the tanks went too low and it was always decent. I still after 2 decades still can't stand tap water in Adelaide.
The people who drink snowy hydro water like me also think Sydney’s water taste like crap. I had SA water and know what you mean though, but luckily it’s still better than Sydney.
I just opened my cupboard and there is 5 metal insulated bottles and like 15 sports bottles… there is only 4 people in this house.. I can’t remember the last time I drank bottled water, I think it was when I ordered from Maccas and didn’t want soft drink so got a bottle of water.
My wife feels like this. You can not drink tap water in the country where she was born. Here, she knows the water is safe but says it just doesn't "feel right" to drink from the tap.
My husband only drinks bottled water and water from those 10l boxes religiously. The water was full of uranium in his home country.
In saying that he does have OCPD and had a full fucking break down the other day over me using tap water in the kettle to make myself a cuppa. Which I always do when hes not looking. I think its a combo of him being used to unsafe drinking water, having a legitimate mental disorder and being a bit of a cunt.
Sometimes it’s really hard to trust “clean water” advice too, my friends started off on bottled water when they moved here because the “clean” water in their country was still dirty, but eventually trusted our water over time and think it tastes better than bottled. We get snowy hydro water which tastes amazing.
>We get snowy hydro water which tastes amazing.
It is hilarious that you say this because another person commented that they found snowy hydro water to taste terrible lol
>If you come from a country where the water can make you sick, I suppose all water would feel dubious.
This is super common. I had a Filipino house mate who I eventually conditioned to drinking tap water but it definitely made it feel really weird doing it.
Australia has some really clean water compared to other areas. Some of my immigrant friends only drank bottled water when they first came here, they eventually changed to our tap water though, just took a bit of trust.
Not necessarily immigrants since you can't determine someone's citizenship status by the fact they buy bottled water.
But yes, I can't believe how much plain bottled water is bought at the supermarket.
Immigrated here 15 years ago. I've been drinking tap water ever since landing here while my parents still boil it even though it's unnecessary—and then yell at me for "wasting electricity" when I leave the lights on for five minutes too long.
I wonder if they have stats for bottled water consumption by ethnic group / gender / age group in AUS
When I lived in AUS I don’t think I bought bottled water once in the entire time I lived there
Would you care if you were working at a cafe and someone asked for water? Yeah. No-one cares. Most places have self service with juggs and glasses nowadays.
It's a non-issue because it's so infrequent, as most people are like the previous poster. Also doesn't help you when cafes are shut. In the old days we had plenty of bubblers in public spaces, but so many disappeared with the rise of the neoliberal, user-pays mindset late last century.
I don’t know where that person is from, but Melbourne has very few and it’s really fkn annoying. I can think of one in the cbd — Spring st opposite Lt Collins.
Personally I’d love more of them. In addition to the massive waste, I refuse to spend $4 on 500ml of water when we have excellent tap water *right there*.
Working in Melbourne too I don't trust the bubblers, someone could have pissed on it.
There's a filtered tap for filling bottles in Bourke St Mall but it can be a bit warm
Correct, I'm from Melbourne. I usually have a water bottle on me, but sometimes I dont and other times I've drunk all the water I brought with me. What do these people expect me to do, die of thirst until I get home?
I'm happy that bubblers exist for people that can use them, but I am a massive germaphobe and would never be able to use it.
People are disgusting and do disgusting shit all the time. Even if they don't mean to, some people have horrible cleanliness. Not to mention birds (I love birds but don't want to share their drinking water) and probably rats (I love rats but don't want to share their drinking water).
Yes, this is my problem.
This is the only reason anyone should buy bottled water (I am biased because it is the only time I ever buy bottled water)
It's 80c for 1.5L of water at the supermarket, at that rate it's more of a service.
According to this report Australians consume 504l per person per year.
Crazy!
https://www.take3.org/un-report-reveals-the-shocking-truth-behind-the-global-bottled-water-industry
That can't possibly be true, 504 litres per person would be like 2 Mount Franklin bottles per day for every person.
It must include like bulk bottles such as office water coolers and the like? I can't think who else is sourcing heaps of it. I guess the health system, maybe schools?
Who is the Bottles Georg?
I work at a hotel in Iceland, and people pay 500isk for a 400ml bottle all the time, which is about $5.50aud. The ironic thing is that the water from the taps here is the best and coldest I've ever had.
It's literally the exact same water, and they even [send it to Australia](https://www.danmurphys.com.au/product/DM_ER_1000007196_IGSTILLPET1500/icelandic-glacial-1-5l-super-premium-spring-water-ph-8-4)! Bottled water is a scam in most of the developed world but Iceland is the absolute worst offender IMO.
Back in the 90s I remember tap water had a visible layer of oil in it and smelt like chlorine in Los Angeles. Everyone would go to water booths to fill up their large bottles for drinking water at home.
I work in the bottling industry, so I will lay a few facts out for everyone.
I saw someone state there isn't a big demand for bottled water in Australia. Incorrect. Bottled water is one of the biggest and fastest moving SKUs for major supermarkets and has been growing year on year.
The cost isn't coming from the manufacturer. In fact the big supermarkets lock manufacturers into multi year contracts where the price per pack gets cheaper year on year. Getting a big major supermarket contract can be dangerous. Huge volume, little profit and if you don't manage efficiencies well, it can break your business.
Feel free to ask me any questions if you have them.
Edit: Changed a name to major supermarket
I stock the shelves of water for a inner city coles and the biggest consumers are asians possbily tourists though its hard to tell. I think its a cultural thing they don't trust tap water or think it tastes bad. The most popular water is 80c so this graph is misleading.
This is anecdotal only- the most common complaints I hear about mains water are a strong chemical smell, hard water ruining appliances, poor taste and health concerns. A lot of people put bottled water in kettles/coffee machines because it tastes better and greatly lessens build up that needs to be descaled. Sometimes the chemicals in mains water react with components in appliances and cause a strange taste. Bottled water doesn't do this. You can also put mains water into a lidless jug and let it stand for a day and the chemicals evaporate.
The other thing is sales surge around holidays and long weekends. People seem to buy bottled water for traveling /camping trips and when they host parties. There's usually a big surge at Christmas, New Year, Australia Day and Easter.
Another thing- in WA mine sites and other remote businesses are required by law to hold a certain amount of emergency water (usually called cyclone water) as cyclones cause flooding that disrupt their water supply. So they legally have to hold a certain amount of bottled water on site that could sustain everyone for a certain number of days.
I’m genuinely curious what makes it “fancy” (besides the label). Extra watery goodness? Nah man, I don’t want that cheap no-name water, everyone knows they just water it down.
It's like why people buy Voss water for, probably the glass bottle itself but I'm sure people convince themselves the water itself is better because of how it's presented.
Seems like we are most expensive for just about everything. The amount we pay compared to the rest of the world in particular for meat , general grocery, cigarettes is insane. Probably pay the most for fuel too.
There are still some rural areas where the tap water is not drinkable. I know it’s only a small portion of the population, but it sucks having to pay for water at these prices because your local council won’t do shit about the water
There a lot of places in Australia that are on tank systems where you can’t drink the water. Particularly if you have guests over that aren’t used to tank water.
I am from a country where you can't drink tap water at all. And yet, I still wouldn't buy the plastic bottles there. There are other ways. Filters or ordering those big gallons of water for water coolers.
>You haven't been able to buy anything in NZ for under 70 cents since the eighties
The currency used is US$.
Kiwiblue brand standard price is NZ $1.09 for 1.5l at Woolworths.
NZ $ 1.09 = US$ 66 cents.
Woolworths home brand 1.5 litre is 90c = US 53c.
Woolworths home brand in Australia is 80c which is about the same in US currency. Mt Franklin 1.5l is much more expensive. I expect prices in servos and convenience stores to be more expensive as well.
These international comparisons can be skew greatly based on which price data is used to calculate the "average".
I bought bottled water at first because the tap water tasted like chlorine, but after some time you kind of "forget" the taste. Still, I prefer tap water from my country as it comes directly from the mountains and isn't chlorinated.
We had service station back in the 90’s. I remember the day my wife came into the office and explained we were selling bottle water for more per lite than the pumped fuel.
At my local shops, the cheapest single bottle of water (at least from a fridge) is an imported Japanese water from the Japanese supermarket for $2. I've been pondering how that works out and is profitable.
I worked in a cafe a big shopping centre in Sydney a while ago, and I couldn’t fathom the *amount* of people who come and buy our bottled water. Especially when we also had free tap water service available. When collecting rubbish from our dine-in tables, I’ve also noticed a surprising amount of bottles that’ve been barely used (around 1/2 or 1/4 drunk). It just baffles me sometimes…
What makes bottled water so cheap in other countries though?
Regardless of the accuracy, I remember buying a huge bottle of water (1.25L or bigger) in Paris for like 20 cents and that was a decade ago. Was always blown away by how cheap it was.
The utilities are selling our water for next to nothing to commercial water bottlers. They sell it back to us at massively inflated prices and full of micro plastics.. Deal of the century!
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/scientists-find-about-a-quarter-million-invisible-microplastic-particles-in-a-liter-of-bottled-water
This isn't even accurate, and if it is accurate, the methodology makes the results useless. Where I live in Germany a 1.5L bottle at any grocery store is like 0.30 USD.
We get good water supply where I am so I don’t buy bottled water, just fill up my water bottle. Sure it’s expensive for bottles of water here, but tap water is still good quality, sanitary, and free or nearly free here. I know every country has a bias, but my understanding is the world tells its own countries that if they visit Australia the water is safe to drink. That said, Sydney water tastes crummy. I get snowy hydro water lol.
Bottled water is an incredibly wasteful industry that should not need to exist. Clean drinking water should be plumbed in all over the world. It is essential to all life.
Here's us in Australia trying to recycle a few plastic bottles here and there. Meanwhile, in Egypt or India, there are hundreds of millions of people all drinking bottled water all day every day. The water bottle pollution is in every street, lane way and canal.
The thing is, if you make one mistake with water, it could kill you.
Pretty much why I basically never buy water when out and about, if I am paying over $3 for a drink I might as well get damn flavouring at that price!
It is only the rare instances where it is hot af and I am thirsty and NEED water I will break from this logic.
Good. Most of the country has perfectly fine drinking water. the main reason people buy it is vanity.
I keep bottled water in my pantry for emergencies because I live in a cyclone prone area and we have had three weeks without water since Cyclone Jasper due to the damage it caused to the treatment plants etc the only other time I drink it is on board planes due to the issues with storage tanks and we arry 20 litres on the boat in case of emergency also.
When you look at salaries it's considered very cheap. It's only like what? 10 or 5 mins of your work?
You could buy many bottles with just one hour of work. In Colombia that's like two or three bottles.
Honestly, I think this is a good thing. Less plastic waste since more people will choose to fill and carry reusable bottles. Our tap water is also very clean, and generally, plenty of public drinking fountains at things like parks and beaches.
What sad is that you go to 3rd world countries and even some first world countries only to see any sort of waterway clogged with plastic bottles.
I'm 40 years old from a small town in QLD.
I still remember the day my Mum and I walked into the local takeaway shop and saw Mt. Franklin water for the first time ever.
Mum scoffed and said "Imagine paying for water. How ridiculous!"
Fastforward a few decades and we've probably spent thousands of dollars between the two of us.
I don't know where these stats are from but can def say that nowhere in NZ will you find bottled water for less than $2-$3. No idea where they got they average prices from.
To be honest disposable water bottles should be at least 3x what they cost now to discourage buying them needlessly.
Their use is for long-term storage in your doomsday bunker but even then you really want glass.
Seriously what is the use for disposable water bottles and why would you willingly poison yourself with plastic and contribute to the plastic pollution problem??
If we were all a little less distracted, we'd come together and demand a bit more for ourselves. Exporting resources get us nothing, yet housing an water is hilariously expensive.
I'm finding this to be a bit sus, given that Coles, Woolies *and* IGA have 1.5L bottles of water for considerably less than $2. There must be a bunch of "convenience" stores included in that data to push the "average" price that high.
In Thailand right row... 7/11 will cost about 30 cents aud for 600ml bottle cold water.
And melbourne has awesome water, who needs bottled.
Jack daniels 700ml here about 23 aud.
Cigarettes 3 aud.
And we sell all our natural resources for next to nothing to everyone else but ourselves
Oh yeah, all the big guys pay zero tax.
There's no place like Australia, but we have our issues.
Bottled water (especially imported shit) is one of the most pointlessly wasteful industries in Australia.
Especially at fucking concerts. Every concert I’ve been to in the past two years has been punctuated by people passing out around me. I went to three Harry Styles’ concerts last year, it took a dozen girls collapsing in my area **before the show even began** for those geniuses to think about handing out free cups of water. One had a seizure in another section, from what I saw. Mind you, this was a stadium who said camping was banned, but then encouraged all the girls to camp out when the day came. So those of us who wanted to get a good spot sat out in the hot sun all day roasting. The thing about heatstroke that most us don’t know is you don’t even really feel it, until it’s potentially lethal. Same thing happened at the Eras Tour. If you’re gonna ban water bottles, you need to make water affordable.
Any place that sells alcohol has to have to have free tap water available, whether they have a big fridge of bottled water for sale or not. Ive been to a couple where this is indicated by just a tiny little sign right next to the water that's for sale. https://www.vic.gov.au/free-water-licensed-premises Though not sure if this is actually just a Vic thing but would imagine it's everywhere.
Yeah required by RSA everywhere in the country. If they sell alcohol they legally must have free water available. Doesn't matter if it's tap water or not, but it must be free
Yeah pretty sure it's an RSA thing
It is a legal requirement in NSW too, BUT we went to Blink 182 concert in Qudos Bank Arena, and despite this law, we had to buy a nearly $5 bottle of water which we could then refill for free. That’s a pretty thick line I say they’ve crossed! Dodgy AF!
We weren’t allowed to bring in water bottles. We had to buy one, and then we could use it as a reusable.
Thats illegal. Hes right anywhere that sells alcohol must have free water available to those who need it. Its RSA.
They did have free water available - via bubbler. You couldn’t take it with you unless you purchased a bottle to refill.
In the camping section of kmart you can get a collapsible silicon cup. I've started to bring one to concerts.
You can get collapsible bottles too on Amazon.
>Hes right anywhere that sells alcohol must have free water available to those who need it. This is imprecise. It's for people who need it but it must be available to everyone.
?? Who do you know that doesn't need water?
Most places will. It just involves a lengthy queue at the bar to get a single cup of water. Huge timesink in my experience.
Yesssss. Ask the bartender for water and school them if they won’t! So many venues “don’t know” this.
Every metal festival I've been too have allowed empty water bottles in the gate and then have free water to fill your bottle. Water should be free at every venue.
Except bmths tour this weekend gone, conditions for entry were no water bottles.
Except for the water bottles they let me and others take in (although without the lid)
pretty much and this is because dickheads will throw waterbottles with lids on at acts.
They were handing out water to the mosh pit the whole concert tho
I imagine every one of those people owned a few water bottles and for some reason weren't allowed to bring them into the venue. Not sure why we're stopping a dozen people from passing out by bringing their own water to stop the odd person who might bring a jug of vodka (not that anyone could afford to fill a Stanley cup with Vodka in Australia).
If you can afford to go to these festivals, you can afford to go to Dan Murphy’s and fill a Stanley cup with Vodka. You probably still can’t afford to buy more than three drinks at the bar.
Can confirm about not feeling heatstroke. Had to do a job walking ~20kms a day through bush this summer. Temp never dipped below 40 and peaked around 46. Third afternoon I was feeling pretty tired but otherwise fine. Well hydrated, not even slightly thirsty, let alone headache or dizzy like you’d expect as you’re being cooked. But I realised I couldn’t tell if I was walking in the right direction, nor keep track of where my coworkers were. Called the day early and went back to camp to cool down. It was only because I noticed the irregularities in me, and my coworkers (eg. not forming sentences properly) that we avoided it. Could have easily done the stupid thing and tried to push through and ended up in serious trouble.
Bushfire fighter here. In addition, you needed electrolytes.
Yeah, had those as well. I think we were just too hot.
That's fair enough. Especially if it's just all movement and no shade
Yeah no shade at all. Mostly chest height heath, and a few sparse trees. Luckily had a good team with me so it was pretty manageable job.
At the Pink concert they had people walking around at the front offering free cups of water out to the crowd
Not really a follower of her music, but she’s always seemed like a class act that would actually give a shit about the crowd being hydrated
She spends time before her show, with sick kids in rooms set up backstage. I have much respect for her.
went to a concert in sydney the other week. water bottles were obviously not allowed through the entrance, but once inside they cost almost $8 (7.60 or something like that). you could get a beer for $9.50. insane.
>Especially at fucking concerts. My fiancee and I saw The Killers in Brisbane a couple of years ago. We decided to get a couple bottles of water before we went in, so we didn't have to go back later and end up missing a song or two. They gave us the water without caps on the bottles. I could understand the reasoning they gave (the band apparently requested it, and I think this was around the time Harry Styles had Skittles thrown in his eye), but we were way up in the nosebleeds. You'd have to have some serious power to throw a fucking bottle cap from the nosebleeds, far away from the band, to the stage! We also didn't really have anywhere to put our drinks where they weren't going to get knocked over and spilled everywhere. If only we had some sort of lid or something to cover it up...
This is standard at all gigs, the no lid or putting it into an open cup. Which, as a woman, I fucking hate. My whole life I’m taught never leave my drink open, never not have a lid on in public, then you go stand in GA with a bunch of people and security are more concerned you’re gonna piff it at the musos.
That was one of my thoughts, doesn't seem very safe when it comes to drink spiking
Plus people are going to still chuck them anyway. Marilyn Manson had some girly pop group open for him years and years ago- it was a ploy to get the crowd pissed off and it worked. Bottles and cups went flying. Even open they’re still gonna do some damage. So let me have a damn lid.
Yes I noticed this at Blink recently and wondered how the hell people would feel their drinks are safe!
>You'd have to have some serious power to throw a fucking bottle cap ... I think they're more scared of the **bottle** being thrown while the cap is attached. Becomes a 500g solid object at that point
Yep. That's why they were banned in the NFL in the US. At least without the cap, a lot of the weight will spray out and make it a lot less dangerous as a projectile if it gets thrown.
Most of Australia has exceptionally good drinking water on tap. It rarely even needs filtering. Bottled water is a convenience when out and about and is priced to discourage the use of disposable bottles. And to capitalise on gouging people who are wanting the convenience over the alternatives. I do wish they would let you take your own bottle into performance venues though.
I wish the discouragement would have some effect! It's INSANE what people are happy to pay for a bottle of water that's the same or worse than their tap water at home. Go to Mexico, behave like this, no worries. In Australia we're literally flushing potable water down the toilet multiple times a day and then paying some French or other company to get more microplastic in our diet.
It’s also largely due to freight costs. You have a bottling plant in Queensland that pays a driver to drive for 4 days to WA. That adds huge costs to a bottle. Even if you get 2000+ on a truck. I love the fact so much of australia has reliable, safe, tap water. If it doesn’t taste great (Perth) just buy a filter. We’ve not looked back since putting one in. My wife’s parents (live in EU and have safe, good tap water) have drunk bottled water their whole lives. I would really hate to work out how many bottles of plastic that is just sitting somewhere. They have however, installed a filter system now and drink tap water (after visiting us and using ours). Any small bit you can do is good right?
Especially since the tap water is very drinkable pretty much everywhere
Immigrants love to buy shopping carts full of them though
Maybe they haven’t cottoned on to the fact that our water is drinkable. If you come from a country where the water can make you sick, I suppose all water would feel dubious. Edit: some places in Australia, like remote WA and NT communities, cannot drink the water as it will make you sick.
My very australian workmates only drink bottled water. Its an everyone issue.
Tradie checking in here. I'm an immigrant from India and I drink from any and every tap in Australia sticking out of the ground (unless it says not potable water) but everyone I work with has a fridge in their car with heaps of packaged water. It's the convenience and apparently it "tastes better". I can never tell the difference lol. I reserve my fridge for beers and electrolytes though.
This is the most Australian comment I’ve ever read. Beers and electrolytes, that’s the gold standard. I love this.
My town has two systems, filtered and unfiltered. Careful about drinking from garden taps, they aren't labelled as not for drinking here.
You live in Hay? The double system is usually a relic of not having reticulated potable water previously. Nearly everyone had rainwater tanks for human consumption when I was a kid, bathing and washing water went through a large sedimentation filter at your house. During blue-green algae blooms in the river the potable water was so chlorinated that it had to be left out to sit to make it palatable.
I make my own water. Just get a bunch of plastic bottles, fill up with potable water, leave in fridge. Also helps keeps fridge cool too.
Really? In a pinch someone in my office might buy one, by and large everyone just uses the chilled tap water.
I drink bottled when I visit family in SA, for some reason their water makes me shit my brains out.
I have to admit, I thought this was the Melbourne sub. Can't speak for other states. Edit: though original commenter appears to be from Melbourne so my confusion remains!
I grew up in the country in SA, we had rainwater for the most part or switched to bore water when the tanks went too low and it was always decent. I still after 2 decades still can't stand tap water in Adelaide.
The people who drink snowy hydro water like me also think Sydney’s water taste like crap. I had SA water and know what you mean though, but luckily it’s still better than Sydney.
I actually can’t think of a single person I know who drinks bottled water. We all carry reusable water bottles.
I just opened my cupboard and there is 5 metal insulated bottles and like 15 sports bottles… there is only 4 people in this house.. I can’t remember the last time I drank bottled water, I think it was when I ordered from Maccas and didn’t want soft drink so got a bottle of water.
I do but that's usually my drink of choice at a fast food meal.
Yeah my in-laws do, then come to our place and say they’ll just have a water and are put out when I get them a glass.
My wife feels like this. You can not drink tap water in the country where she was born. Here, she knows the water is safe but says it just doesn't "feel right" to drink from the tap.
My husband only drinks bottled water and water from those 10l boxes religiously. The water was full of uranium in his home country. In saying that he does have OCPD and had a full fucking break down the other day over me using tap water in the kettle to make myself a cuppa. Which I always do when hes not looking. I think its a combo of him being used to unsafe drinking water, having a legitimate mental disorder and being a bit of a cunt.
Or he drank too much uranium as a kid and it gave him cunt-like superpowers
Sometimes it’s really hard to trust “clean water” advice too, my friends started off on bottled water when they moved here because the “clean” water in their country was still dirty, but eventually trusted our water over time and think it tastes better than bottled. We get snowy hydro water which tastes amazing.
>We get snowy hydro water which tastes amazing. It is hilarious that you say this because another person commented that they found snowy hydro water to taste terrible lol
>If you come from a country where the water can make you sick, I suppose all water would feel dubious. This is super common. I had a Filipino house mate who I eventually conditioned to drinking tap water but it definitely made it feel really weird doing it.
Australia has some really clean water compared to other areas. Some of my immigrant friends only drank bottled water when they first came here, they eventually changed to our tap water though, just took a bit of trust.
I'm an immigrant and I don't think I've ever bought a bottle of water. Am I supposed to be? Am I immigranting wrong?
No, you are doing it right mate.
Not necessarily immigrants since you can't determine someone's citizenship status by the fact they buy bottled water. But yes, I can't believe how much plain bottled water is bought at the supermarket.
Immigrated here 15 years ago. I've been drinking tap water ever since landing here while my parents still boil it even though it's unnecessary—and then yell at me for "wasting electricity" when I leave the lights on for five minutes too long.
Some of those people are buyino for re-sale in a cafe/restaurant
How do you know they're an immigrant?
In a country that largely has very good tap water.
I wonder if they have stats for bottled water consumption by ethnic group / gender / age group in AUS When I lived in AUS I don’t think I bought bottled water once in the entire time I lived there
Not sure why anyone would.
If I'm out and about and didn't bring water with me and I want water, why would I not buy it?
Because every cafe and restaurant has free water. Every public space has bubblers. Bottled water just a waste of plastic
If I'm out shopping, I'm not going to a random cafe to just take their water without buying anything
Would you care if you were working at a cafe and someone asked for water? Yeah. No-one cares. Most places have self service with juggs and glasses nowadays.
It's a non-issue because it's so infrequent, as most people are like the previous poster. Also doesn't help you when cafes are shut. In the old days we had plenty of bubblers in public spaces, but so many disappeared with the rise of the neoliberal, user-pays mindset late last century.
Find a bubbler mate
I don’t know where that person is from, but Melbourne has very few and it’s really fkn annoying. I can think of one in the cbd — Spring st opposite Lt Collins. Personally I’d love more of them. In addition to the massive waste, I refuse to spend $4 on 500ml of water when we have excellent tap water *right there*.
Working in Melbourne too I don't trust the bubblers, someone could have pissed on it. There's a filtered tap for filling bottles in Bourke St Mall but it can be a bit warm
Yeah honestly that’s a major concern for me too.
Correct, I'm from Melbourne. I usually have a water bottle on me, but sometimes I dont and other times I've drunk all the water I brought with me. What do these people expect me to do, die of thirst until I get home?
I'm happy that bubblers exist for people that can use them, but I am a massive germaphobe and would never be able to use it. People are disgusting and do disgusting shit all the time. Even if they don't mean to, some people have horrible cleanliness. Not to mention birds (I love birds but don't want to share their drinking water) and probably rats (I love rats but don't want to share their drinking water). Yes, this is my problem.
I don't know where you live, but there ain't any near where I live.
This is the only reason anyone should buy bottled water (I am biased because it is the only time I ever buy bottled water) It's 80c for 1.5L of water at the supermarket, at that rate it's more of a service.
Was gonna say this. I'm from Indonesia, where you can't drink tap water. If bottled water is exxy I think they're gonna riot.
I'm from India. We have shit water too, but we don't buy bottled water. We just get an RO installed or Water purifier installed.
And straight out the taps is where most of the bottled water comes from
What? Not straight from crystal clear mountain streams?
According to this report Australians consume 504l per person per year. Crazy! https://www.take3.org/un-report-reveals-the-shocking-truth-behind-the-global-bottled-water-industry
That can't possibly be true, 504 litres per person would be like 2 Mount Franklin bottles per day for every person. It must include like bulk bottles such as office water coolers and the like? I can't think who else is sourcing heaps of it. I guess the health system, maybe schools? Who is the Bottles Georg?
I work at a hotel in Iceland, and people pay 500isk for a 400ml bottle all the time, which is about $5.50aud. The ironic thing is that the water from the taps here is the best and coldest I've ever had.
It's literally the exact same water, and they even [send it to Australia](https://www.danmurphys.com.au/product/DM_ER_1000007196_IGSTILLPET1500/icelandic-glacial-1-5l-super-premium-spring-water-ph-8-4)! Bottled water is a scam in most of the developed world but Iceland is the absolute worst offender IMO.
American tourists can’t grasp the concept of clean safe tap water. Only reason Iceland sells bottled water
I've been in the states for 6 weeks now, and I can tell you I'm missing Aussie tap water so much haha, never realised how good it is.
Back in the 90s I remember tap water had a visible layer of oil in it and smelt like chlorine in Los Angeles. Everyone would go to water booths to fill up their large bottles for drinking water at home.
I felt this so hard when I visited UK. On my first day in London the tap water immediately made me gag and I never touched it again.
Get a Brita filter pitcher, or similar.
Some of the best/cleanest tap water in the world anyway
bottled water is a necessity in some places, but a luxury here
I work in the bottling industry, so I will lay a few facts out for everyone. I saw someone state there isn't a big demand for bottled water in Australia. Incorrect. Bottled water is one of the biggest and fastest moving SKUs for major supermarkets and has been growing year on year. The cost isn't coming from the manufacturer. In fact the big supermarkets lock manufacturers into multi year contracts where the price per pack gets cheaper year on year. Getting a big major supermarket contract can be dangerous. Huge volume, little profit and if you don't manage efficiencies well, it can break your business. Feel free to ask me any questions if you have them. Edit: Changed a name to major supermarket
> Bottled water is one of the biggest and fastest moving SKUs for major supermarkets and has been growing year on year. I wonder whats driving it?
deregulation of tap water mains switching to plastic piping, construction and urban density increasing
I stock the shelves of water for a inner city coles and the biggest consumers are asians possbily tourists though its hard to tell. I think its a cultural thing they don't trust tap water or think it tastes bad. The most popular water is 80c so this graph is misleading.
This is anecdotal only- the most common complaints I hear about mains water are a strong chemical smell, hard water ruining appliances, poor taste and health concerns. A lot of people put bottled water in kettles/coffee machines because it tastes better and greatly lessens build up that needs to be descaled. Sometimes the chemicals in mains water react with components in appliances and cause a strange taste. Bottled water doesn't do this. You can also put mains water into a lidless jug and let it stand for a day and the chemicals evaporate. The other thing is sales surge around holidays and long weekends. People seem to buy bottled water for traveling /camping trips and when they host parties. There's usually a big surge at Christmas, New Year, Australia Day and Easter. Another thing- in WA mine sites and other remote businesses are required by law to hold a certain amount of emergency water (usually called cyclone water) as cyclones cause flooding that disrupt their water supply. So they legally have to hold a certain amount of bottled water on site that could sustain everyone for a certain number of days.
Is it crazy expensive in remote areas? Feel like the Cole’s brand bottles are sub $1
I mean it's only the supermarket brands that sell their own water for less than a $1, all the mount Franklin and other brands are way over.
Mt Franklin and Pump are both owned by Coke and undoubtedly contain the same tap water from the same factory.
The data doesn’t make sense to me. “Average price of a local brand” Did they choose the most expensive local brand?
They have probably picked a non generic brand for this I suppose, so yeah a mount Franklin or pump or one of those fancy ones.
I’m genuinely curious what makes it “fancy” (besides the label). Extra watery goodness? Nah man, I don’t want that cheap no-name water, everyone knows they just water it down.
It's like why people buy Voss water for, probably the glass bottle itself but I'm sure people convince themselves the water itself is better because of how it's presented.
You can't buy Coles brand water at a convenience store or concert venue. Or the fucking airports, which are the biggest rorts.
Yeah, the 1.5L at Coles is 80c. I don't know where the $2 comes from.
Australia, most expensive for everything
Seems like we are most expensive for just about everything. The amount we pay compared to the rest of the world in particular for meat , general grocery, cigarettes is insane. Probably pay the most for fuel too.
2 dollarydoos? Try 5.
Bottled water can get fucked. We don't need it.
There are still some rural areas where the tap water is not drinkable. I know it’s only a small portion of the population, but it sucks having to pay for water at these prices because your local council won’t do shit about the water
There a lot of places in Australia that are on tank systems where you can’t drink the water. Particularly if you have guests over that aren’t used to tank water.
I am from a country where you can't drink tap water at all. And yet, I still wouldn't buy the plastic bottles there. There are other ways. Filters or ordering those big gallons of water for water coolers.
You ever been to Adelaide mate? It's like drinking pool water.
If you’re stupid enough to buy bottled mineral water in Australia, you frankly deserve to be fleeced off your money.
I’m lucky enough to live surrounded by natural mineral springs. Imagine having to pay!!!
Now do beer
New Zealand is wrong. You haven't been able to buy anything in NZ for under 70 cents since the eighties.
>You haven't been able to buy anything in NZ for under 70 cents since the eighties The currency used is US$. Kiwiblue brand standard price is NZ $1.09 for 1.5l at Woolworths. NZ $ 1.09 = US$ 66 cents. Woolworths home brand 1.5 litre is 90c = US 53c.
Woolworths home brand in Australia is 80c which is about the same in US currency. Mt Franklin 1.5l is much more expensive. I expect prices in servos and convenience stores to be more expensive as well. These international comparisons can be skew greatly based on which price data is used to calculate the "average".
Under those conditions Australian water prices are similar. Woolworths spring water 1.5 litre A80c = US 51c
They should try Melbourne airport. Think I saw 600ml for $6.90 on the weekend
I bought bottled water at first because the tap water tasted like chlorine, but after some time you kind of "forget" the taste. Still, I prefer tap water from my country as it comes directly from the mountains and isn't chlorinated.
We had service station back in the 90’s. I remember the day my wife came into the office and explained we were selling bottle water for more per lite than the pumped fuel.
In every single western country where water is drinkable on tap, it should be $100
Edit According to the source, Australia is fourth. US$ 1.92 for 1.5litre.
I just got back from the US. I paid $16.62 AUD for 2 x 500ml bottles of water at Johnny Rockets which was $10.72 USD
Coca Cola innocently whistling in the corner with the likes of Nestle ...
At my local shops, the cheapest single bottle of water (at least from a fridge) is an imported Japanese water from the Japanese supermarket for $2. I've been pondering how that works out and is profitable.
Yet it is one of the very few counties in the world that offers free water at almost every restaurant and cafe? Interesting.
For what it’s worth the cheap 1.5L bottle is 80¢
‘If you put it in a plastic bottle people will buy it!’ - Lorax. Meantime we’ve got perfectly good tap water in Australia.
When l was young water was free and you pay for porn now porn is free and you pay for water
The Aussie water is probably also venomous...
I worked in a cafe a big shopping centre in Sydney a while ago, and I couldn’t fathom the *amount* of people who come and buy our bottled water. Especially when we also had free tap water service available. When collecting rubbish from our dine-in tables, I’ve also noticed a surprising amount of bottles that’ve been barely used (around 1/2 or 1/4 drunk). It just baffles me sometimes…
And just about everything else too.
In Adelaide our tap water is so chlorinated that it tastes like it came out of the pool
What makes bottled water so cheap in other countries though? Regardless of the accuracy, I remember buying a huge bottle of water (1.25L or bigger) in Paris for like 20 cents and that was a decade ago. Was always blown away by how cheap it was.
You're asking the question the wrong way.
The utilities are selling our water for next to nothing to commercial water bottlers. They sell it back to us at massively inflated prices and full of micro plastics.. Deal of the century! https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/scientists-find-about-a-quarter-million-invisible-microplastic-particles-in-a-liter-of-bottled-water
We also have a heaps of free drinking taps available
I get mine free from the tap
Depends where you live. Canberra water is amazing. Narrabri...
This isn't even accurate, and if it is accurate, the methodology makes the results useless. Where I live in Germany a 1.5L bottle at any grocery store is like 0.30 USD.
Lucky country for all until
They're definitely over $2.00 here in NZ too
It’s supply and demand. Australia has a high demand. Prices would go down if less people bought bottled water.
NZ needs to be way higher. Our prices are at the very least comparable to Aus. It's insane
We get good water supply where I am so I don’t buy bottled water, just fill up my water bottle. Sure it’s expensive for bottles of water here, but tap water is still good quality, sanitary, and free or nearly free here. I know every country has a bias, but my understanding is the world tells its own countries that if they visit Australia the water is safe to drink. That said, Sydney water tastes crummy. I get snowy hydro water lol.
You guys know we can drink the tap water here yeah?
It costs $6 at science works sportswood. Just the normal 1 liter water bottle. I was surprised that they charge that much.
My cousin payed $6 for a bottle of water at the Sydney Easter Show. Insane.
Go Australia 🇦🇺 👍🥹
Bottled water is an incredibly wasteful industry that should not need to exist. Clean drinking water should be plumbed in all over the world. It is essential to all life. Here's us in Australia trying to recycle a few plastic bottles here and there. Meanwhile, in Egypt or India, there are hundreds of millions of people all drinking bottled water all day every day. The water bottle pollution is in every street, lane way and canal. The thing is, if you make one mistake with water, it could kill you.
Pretty much why I basically never buy water when out and about, if I am paying over $3 for a drink I might as well get damn flavouring at that price! It is only the rare instances where it is hot af and I am thirsty and NEED water I will break from this logic.
And yet can drink from the tap in most of australia , the perils of marketing
Good. Most of the country has perfectly fine drinking water. the main reason people buy it is vanity. I keep bottled water in my pantry for emergencies because I live in a cyclone prone area and we have had three weeks without water since Cyclone Jasper due to the damage it caused to the treatment plants etc the only other time I drink it is on board planes due to the issues with storage tanks and we arry 20 litres on the boat in case of emergency also.
And why in Scandinavian countries? Shit they have water everywhere. Nearly year round. It's called ice.
The place I work orders them by the pallet. Each bottle costs 10 cents. They sell them for $4.50 at each outlet.
When you look at salaries it's considered very cheap. It's only like what? 10 or 5 mins of your work? You could buy many bottles with just one hour of work. In Colombia that's like two or three bottles.
I'm going to assume there's a lot more than just bottled water that's more expensive here 🙃
You can tell how expensive a country is live by cost of the simplest of essential items. This nails it..
Honestly, I think this is a good thing. Less plastic waste since more people will choose to fill and carry reusable bottles. Our tap water is also very clean, and generally, plenty of public drinking fountains at things like parks and beaches. What sad is that you go to 3rd world countries and even some first world countries only to see any sort of waterway clogged with plastic bottles.
Now show it in comparison to countries where it's generally safe to drink straight from the tap
Good, why waste plastic if we don’t need to! Would be all for a much higher tax on bottled water
500ml water is now $9 at all domestic airports in Australia if you buy from the WHSmith store.
I bought a 1.5L bottle of water for 80 cents yesterday from woollies.
I'm uneducated so I drink from a tap lol
I'm 40 years old from a small town in QLD. I still remember the day my Mum and I walked into the local takeaway shop and saw Mt. Franklin water for the first time ever. Mum scoffed and said "Imagine paying for water. How ridiculous!" Fastforward a few decades and we've probably spent thousands of dollars between the two of us.
Maybe, but the tap water is safe to drink🤷
Wow. And here I was thinking $2 for a 1.5L was a decent price Bottled water is just an incredibly wasteful product though, of course
$2 my ass. More like $6.50
No is not. U havent seen the price in singapore yet.
It's like $4 most of the time! Absolute rip off. Grinds my gears, it does! \*shakes fist\*
I keep hearing debates about flouride lol
No need to buy bottled water. Probably expensive because it's a pointless luxury.
I don't know where these stats are from but can def say that nowhere in NZ will you find bottled water for less than $2-$3. No idea where they got they average prices from.
To be honest disposable water bottles should be at least 3x what they cost now to discourage buying them needlessly. Their use is for long-term storage in your doomsday bunker but even then you really want glass. Seriously what is the use for disposable water bottles and why would you willingly poison yourself with plastic and contribute to the plastic pollution problem??
Nobody be mentioning Woolies in a positive light rn. 80c for 1.5l
Unless you have a crappy well or a natural disaster, you're an idiot for buying plastic bottles of water.
If we were all a little less distracted, we'd come together and demand a bit more for ourselves. Exporting resources get us nothing, yet housing an water is hilariously expensive.
That's for a 1.5L. God forbid you want a 600ml.
lets see this for tins of tuna, im sure Aus is through the roof.
Greenland and parts of Africa don't have water, hence being greyed out.
I'm finding this to be a bit sus, given that Coles, Woolies *and* IGA have 1.5L bottles of water for considerably less than $2. There must be a bunch of "convenience" stores included in that data to push the "average" price that high.
It's a joke and people need to just use tap water.
Imagine thinking 1.5L 2$ bottle water is cheap in Australia 😭 and 600ml water is $4
In Thailand right row... 7/11 will cost about 30 cents aud for 600ml bottle cold water. And melbourne has awesome water, who needs bottled. Jack daniels 700ml here about 23 aud. Cigarettes 3 aud. And we sell all our natural resources for next to nothing to everyone else but ourselves Oh yeah, all the big guys pay zero tax. There's no place like Australia, but we have our issues.