Less plastic bottle waste with new rules for tap water

Higher water quality. Improved access to tap water. Innovative rules to make our drinking water even safer. More and better information for consumers. These are only some of the achievements of the new law regulating the quality of tap and bottled water in Europe, which Parliament's Committee on Environment and Food Safety will approve this morning.

"These new rules will make our drinking water even safer by monitoring contaminants such as microplastics, finally establishing thresholds for endocrine disruptors such as Bisphenol A and imposing stricter limits for lead which are a real threat to human health", said Christophe Hansen MEP, lead negotiator for the European Parliament, ahead of the vote.

"It goes without saying that everyone should have access to clean and good quality water", said Hansen, adding that for him, some aspects of the new water rules will even go beyond their original intent. "If and when confidence in drinking tap water improves, citizens will use and throw away less plastic water bottles thus helping to protect the environment. They can also save a lot of money as drinking water is much cheaper than bottled water", explained Hansen.

The law, expected to be validated today by the Environment Committee, is a result of a deal between the European Parliament and EU Member States agreed on last December. It was a follow-up of the first-ever successful European Citizens’ Initiative called Right2Water, which gathered over 1.8 million signatures in support of improving access to safe drinking water for all Europeans.