Bottled Water
Sliced Bread
BBC
4.6 • 695 Ratings
🗓️ 16 February 2023
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Listener Isla, 11, wants to know if bottled water from the UK's biggest selling brands such as Evian and Buxton is cleaner, healthier, cheaper and greener than the stuff that comes from the tap.
Greg Foot drills down into the subject, investigating the claims made by manufacturers of bottled water. Does it make any difference if water has spent years underground being "filtered by rocks" before being bottled? Are there more minerals in bottled water than in tap? And even though companies are making more of their bottles from recycled plastic, what’s the environmental impact?
Greg speaks to experts including a lecturer in water chemistry, an environmental NGO and a water sommelier (yes, they’re a thing!) who explains why some bottled water can cost more than a hundred pounds.
This series, we’re testing and investigating your suggested wonder-products. If you’ve seen an ad, trend or fad and wonder if there’s any evidence to back up a claim, drop us an email to sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk or you can send us a voice note to our WhatsApp number: 07543 306807.
PRESENTER: Greg Foot PRODUCER: Simon Hoban
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, podcast fan. |
| 0:03.0 | Consider this your invite to the UK's biggest podcasting party. |
| 0:06.7 | We're heading to Sheffield from the 4th to the 6th of July |
| 0:09.0 | for the BBC Sounds Fringe at the Crossed Wires Festival. |
| 0:12.8 | We'll be joined by some of the biggest names in podcasting, |
| 0:15.3 | including Sarah Cox, Charlie Hedges, Russell Kane, |
| 0:18.4 | and some bloke called Greg James doing his Radio 4 show called Rewinder. |
| 0:23.2 | You can watch live shows of your favourite podcasts, and the best part is free. |
| 0:28.0 | To book your free tickets, go to crossedwires. Live, forward slash fringe. |
| 0:34.4 | BBC Sounds, music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:39.8 | Hello, I'm Greg Foote and welcome to the show that investigates your suggested wonder products. |
| 0:45.5 | Today's topic comes in from 11-year-old Ila and her dad Rob in Worcestershire. |
| 0:52.4 | Hello, you two. Nice to see you. Hi, Greg. Hi, Greg. Your dad sent your message over to me. Thanks so much for suggesting this wonder product. Tell me what it is. I think I can see it there in the Zoom screen. It's bottled water. I would like to know if it's better for your body than drinking tap water since there's so many different |
| 1:12.9 | types including cap mineral and spring water. Right. So health is the biggest question, is it? |
| 1:19.4 | And what about you, Rob? We found your podcast and we've not stopped listening to it since we found it. |
| 1:24.5 | Oh, amazing. And I mentioned it to Isla, and then she instantly came up with the idea. |
| 1:28.3 | I thought, wow, I've started the wheels in my head turning. |
| 1:31.1 | And I thought, well, what is the difference between all these different bottles of water? |
| 1:34.3 | And as Ila said, there's all the different types. |
| 1:36.9 | So. |
| 1:37.1 | Isla, you're looking at the bottle closely. |
| 1:39.1 | What can you see? |
... |
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