Photo by joah brown on Unsplash
Did you know?
In Germany, 1L or 2 pints of tap water cost €0.002, and a water bottle of the same size will cost you €0.54. The American Water Works Association showed that tap water costs only $0.004 a gallon, less than 1/300 the cost of bottled water.
One of the biggest shocks I had when moving from the United States to Germany is that I had to pay for water at a restaurant. Your server just can't understand why you wouldn't want good bottled water to go with your delicious food.
What puzzled me even more is that the quality of tap water in Germany is not just good, it is EXCELLENT!
“It is regularly monitored at short intervals and complies with the stringent quality requirements of the Drinking Water Ordinance,” according to the Federal Ministry of Environment and Consumer Protection.
Water in Germany is more expensive than in the United States and you can expect to pay four times more than you would in the US. Potable water is usually metered and you can expect to pay around 1.60 Euro per cubic meter (1000 Liters) or 35 cubic feet. But does charging you for a water bottle make this better? How much more profit are restaurants making? Or is it the water bottle industry that sets the rules?
The European Parliament published an article that mentions that drinking tap water is not only cheap but also environmentally friendly. Just think about how drinking tap water and lower consumption of bottled water will reduce CO2 emissions and plastic waste.
According to the European Commission, if people were to drink more tap water this could reduce the consumption of water bottles by 17%. The average European person consumes 106 L or 28 gallons of bottled water per year. This is sad given the fact that they have quality tap water.
Germany has many excellent green initiatives, and their recycling programs are fantastic, but buying water bottles still creates trash. My personal opinion is that tap water should be offered to you at a restaurant and let people decide whether they want it or not. You might as well take advantage of the excellent water quality in Germany.
Written by: Sandy Rivera, Recruiting Coordinator at Hunter Crown, LLC
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