The tap water in London is among the best tasting and cleanest in the world.  It is 500 times less expensive to drink than bottled water.  It generates 300 times less carbon during its production process than bottled water.  And of course, it doesn’t clog the UK’s landfills with those ever-present plastic water bottles.  But despite this overwhelming amount of evidence in favor of getting off the bottle, Londoners (as well as other people around the world) continue to spend money on something they can get for almost nothing from their kitchen sink. 

London Mayor Boris Johnson and the local tap water supplier, Thames Water, finally decided enough was enough.  It was time to provide an incentive to get their citizens to turn back to the tap.  And they did it…in the form of a contest.  Hoping to encourage more Londoners to drink tap water when out on the town, they invited submissions of designs for sustainable, glass carafes to be used in all London establishments that serve water.   The winning design, a tall, tapered carafe with four spouts that resemble a four-leaf clover, is called “Tap Top,” and earned industrial designer Neil Barron a five thousand pound prize, along with bragging rights to having his design in every watering hole in the city.  Will it actually get Londoners off the bottle?  We’ll keep you posted – the carafes go on sale early next year.