I,ve never understood the bottled water market . Why not fill up a container from the tap ?  It seems odd that a litre of a processed product is cheaper than an equivalent amount of water . Milk has water in it , soft drink the same , petrol doesn,t but all can be cheaper than straight water in a bottle .

IMO yes.  I have been known to buy bottled water when I have forgotten to take my tapwater with me when I go out.  We had one of those spring water type water coolers at work, and there were people who swore by it, tasted better, didn't have chemicals in it blah blah blah.  I knew for a fact that the cleaners used to fill the container from the tap if there were no replacements available.  No-one ever complained.

If you were living in one of those countries where it is very hard to find, let alone drink, fresh running water, most of it looks polluted, muddy and smelly, Then bottled water would be the best bet, but in Australia our water is one of the purest you can get to drink. They market bottled water  well, to get the suckers in. 

Of course its a scam, where else in the world is bottled water more expensive than petrol? In places like Asia where tap water is nowhere near our standard of hygiene, they do drink bottled water and usually only pay10 to 20cents for a 600ml bottle. In Australia, those who sell bottled water should be treated as criminals and those that buy it should be treated as mentally incompetent. We pay very high water rates for CLEAN water and we are dills and deserve to be swindled if we are too stupid to drink it.

The water is not so good in Tassie so told to boil it - so what we do is to fill the kettle and boil it overnight then fill old V8 veggie juice glass bottles for the fridge to drink - never buy bottled as bit of a con except if in another country etc. Take some with me when out.

Although we now have a water co or 3 like the power co meaning even higher running costs as usual - before was done by councils and water here is today 72 c a litre and no free bits to start with. And they spend millions getting the accounting right so water - who knows - how good - and it was 3 years back only 40c a litre.

How much so you pay in your state for water?

And electricity is 28c straight a unit all up no difference at all for more etc.

So how much in your state for this too as interesting as ours if free from God to make electricity and still have to pay carbon tax although no carbon footprint.

Two things I refuse to pay for. First is water which I get for free out of a tap.

The other -  I refuse to pay $5 for a cup of coffee when at the shops, that to me is a rip off.

A very simple answer - YES. Our water in my part of Tassie is great.

Water is free, the bottle is paid for.