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Canada: Bottle or tap? Income, education influence choices: StatsCan

CBC News.

Higher education linked to tap water preference

Almost 30 per cent of households chose bottled water as their main drinking source in 2006, and factors such as education and income influenced whether Canadians turned to a bottle or tap to quench their thirst, according to a report from Statistics Canada.

The study, Against the flow: Which households drink bottled water? looked at the rate of bottled water consumption across the country. It took into account factors such as income, education, age and the type of dwelling where people lived.

The report says higher-income households and those with children were most likely to drink bottled water. About one-quarter of households with an income of $40,000 or less consumed bottled water, compared with one-third of households with an income of more than $91,000.

About one-quarter of apartment dwellers reported that they used bottled water.

Meanwhile, seniors were the most likely to turn on the tap for a drink, with just 17 per cent reporting they drank primarily bottled water in the home. Statistics Canada said the findings likely have an income-related connection, noting that half of all households composed of seniors had an income of $25,000 or less a year.

Education a factor
Households with at least one university graduate were also among those least likely to use bottled water.

Among households with an income over $91,000 and members whose education included a high school diploma or less, 44 per cent reported that they primarily drank bottled water. Within the same income group, 38 per cent of households with members who reported having "some post-secondary" education drank bottled water, compared with 29 per cent in households where at least one member had completed a university degree.

"Though there is often a link between households with high income and households with higher education, this does not extend to drinking bottled water in the home," the study's authors wrote. "The higher bottled water consumption among high-income households was driven by households where no one had completed a university degree."

The study noted that, "It is possible that university graduates are more aware of the environmental issues surrounding bottled water. They may also be more skeptical of the claims that bottled water is a healthier choice than tap water."

Critics of the industry say advertising by bottled water companies gives consumers the impression the product is safer and healthier than Canadian tap water, even though municipal water is more stringently tested. In Canada, local water supplies are inspected every day, whereas bottled-water plants are inspected at three-year intervals.

Plastic waste
Statistics Canada's report also noted that the amount of plastic waste generated by the consumption of bottled water has "raised concerns," since potable tap water is available in most Canadian communities.

According to the Container Recycling Institute (CRI), a U.S. nonprofit organization that promotes policies and programs to increase the recycling of beverage containers, more than 80 per cent of plastic water bottles in the U.S. end up being incinerated or sent to landfills. No figures were available for Canada.

Between 2002 and 2007, world consumption of bottled water jumped by 7.6 per cent per year, from 130.95 billion litres to 188.8 billion litres, according to the Beverage Marketing Corporation. The United States consumes the most bottled water on the planet (33.4 billion litres), while residents of the United Arab Emirates consume the most bottled water per capita (259.7 litres per person per year).

In the latest figures available for Canada, the Beverage Marketing Corporation says that In 2005, Canadians spent $652.7 million on bottled water. It adds that Canadians consumed a total of 1.9 billion litres of bottled water in 2005 — 60 litres per person — which represented a 20 per cent jump over 2004.

With files from the Canadian Press