Paul today called on officials in Parliament to cut the sale of bottled water to MPs and visitors to the Houses of Parliament. 

Paul signed up to Early Day Motion 959, a petition which calls on “House authorities to draw up a plan to stop the purchase of 250,000 bottles of water bought by the House every year”. 

Paul’s announcement today follows recent attention focussed on the bottled water industry. Environmental campaigners have strongly criticised the industry for selling what they deem to be an environmentally unfriendly product, with tonnes of non-biodegradable plastic being a by-product of the bottled water craze.  

Paul says “It is obvious that there will be times when consumers do want or even need to buy bottled water, and nobody wants to restrict that choice. What I am saying today is that when the UK’s very pure and clean tap water is available then it makes no sense to go and buy a bottle of effectively the same thing and contribute to our growing waste mountain in the process. We should be encouraging businesses to make tap water and mains water supplies more readily available rather than spending millions on making plastic bottles, shipping water across continents in planes and lorries, then having to pay to tidy up the mess when we’re finished. Parliament should be leading the way on this issue, and as politicians we need to display leadership and show that changes are easy to make if we try”.   

Paul has also written to the manager of Refreshments at the House of Commons to call for a change, and you can read a copy of his letter by clicking on the PDF button below:

Comment on this story below: