One quarter of Australians aged 14 and over - nearly five million people - drink bottled water in an average seven days, according to Roy Morgan Research.
This figure has remained steady since 2010, according to the research firm. Recently, it asked bottled water drinkers how they felt about the environment - and it found that in this respect, those who drink bottled water do not differ dramatically from those who don’t.
While they are slightly more likely to believe that ‘environmentally friendly products are overpriced' and are slightly less likely to agree that ‘at heart, I’m an environmentalist’, they are also slightly more likely to believe that ‘if we don’t act now we’ll never control our environmental problems’.
Their consumption of other non-alcoholic drinks, however, differs considerably, however. According to Roy Morgan Research, they are more likely to drink soft drinks of every flavour, packaged fruit juices, cordial, coconut water, and sports and energy drinks in an average seven-day period than those who don't drink bottled water.
Also, younger people from the Generations Y and Z are more likely than other generations to drink bottled water in an average seven days.
“As debate rages on the environmental impact of bottled water, the proportion of Australians drinking it has remained steady,” Roy Morgan Research CEO Michele Levine says.
“Curiously, the people who do drink it hold fairly similar environmental attitudes to those who don’t. Where they differ is in their heightened tendency to drink other commercially available non-alcoholic beverages as well as bottled water - a tendency that seems to be linked to their age.”
