Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1338076
10 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 10 FEBRUARY 2021 NEWS Malta has lowest tap water consumption in EU EACH household in Malta con- sumes on average 1,000 plas- tic bottles of water each year, a staggering 200 million bottles nationwide. According to Phil Richards, CEO of TAPP Water (Malta) Ltd, the primary reason for this is that the Maltese do not like tap water (although it meets all EU and WHO standards, and is actually quite good). Richards heads a company, set up a little over a year ago, that is empowering people to easily get clean, healthy water from the tap with minimum envi- ronmental impact. He was be- ing interviewed by Claire Agius on the second day of the Malta Sustainability Forum, held vir- tually this year and organised by APS Bank (you can view the entire session on Facebook and h t t p s : / / w w w . y o u t u b e . c o m / watch?v=wb1ftpU2gts). "Less than 20% of these bot- tles are recycled and, with oil prices the way they are, new plastic is cheaper than recycled plastic," Richards said. "We also know that, when you put your plastic in the recycling bag, it's only going to be recy- cled two or three times. Then what happens to it? "It's either going to be incin- erated or land-filled. It can't be used further. We also know that it takes two litres of water to make a plastic bottle holding two litres of water, which does not exactly feel sustainable. Finally, the water in a 2-litre bottle costs just 0.003c and it's sold for 50c. That's 185 times more, which is like buying a loaf of bread for €180.00. You just wouldn't do it. We know the bottled water companies don't sell water. They sell plastic." A new concern is microplas- tics, Richards said. "There is no regulation; there is no standard of micro-plastics in water sup- ply. Current research by the WWF suggests that we ingest 5g of microplastics every week in the food, water or air and re- search by bottled water compa- nies in other countries shows that microplastics is found in bottled water." He called for a new solution, with the one he has sought be- ing the more sustainable when compared to solutions like re- verse osmosis, jug or pitcher filters and ceramic filters. The TAPP Water filter, he said, fits easily to the tap in your kitchen sink, so you don't need a technician to install it. The filter inside the outer re- usable plastic case has a poros- ity of about two microns, with five levels of filtration. Each filter contains an activated car- bon block made of a renewable resource, coconut fibre. This filters out herbicides, pesticides, heavy metals, chlorine, chloride and nitrates – particularly use- ful in Malta, plus bacteria. He explained that there is another level of filtration, ad- sorption, where materials stick to the surface. "This is quite an interesting material," he said. "If you took a gram of it and rolled it out flat, it would take up the area of a tennis court. So, things stick to the surface." The activated carbon breaks down in an industrial compost- er but, since industrial com- posting is not yet available in Malta, it can go into a landfill, where it will eventually break down, leaving the bit at the top and the bit at the bottom. Having entered many Mal- tese households (pre-COVID), Richards said their primary motivator for acquiring the TAPP Water filter is to be more eco-friendly because they feel it just isn't right to use plastic bottles any more. "It's not only about the con- venience – you have to buy them, store them, manage them (and) throw them away; it's about the fact that it doesn't feel right from an eco point of view. "People have a genuine con- cern about it, and they want their children to be using re-fillable bottles for school. It's not just about saving mon- ey. This is about 90% cheap- er than bottled water. It's got quite a low investment in it which is also attractive. But it's not just about that. It's about saving plastic bottles because it doesn't feel right and people want an easy, simple solution to be able to make that change." Richards is a firm believer that, to change consumer be- haviour, you have to make it easy and simple. The filtration system is a case in point: "The filtration system, for example, was designed so that people have to take the filter out and keep the casing. People become quite protective about keeping this casing, which is great be- cause you are no longer throw- ing away plastic. And that's wonderful." Agius asked Richards about how he has been liaising and familiarising himself with oth- er businesses that are looking to become sustainable busi- nesses too: "I've been very lucky to meet quite a few businesses that are also in the sustainability mar- ket and trying to do things in a different way. I think there's a real undercurrent here in Malta of people starting to find new ways of doing the same old things," he said. "It's been a joy to meet lots of different businesses. We work together in different ways, tell- ing our customers about each other's businesses because we are all out to help people make that change. There is the de- mand and the desire out there for people to make changes." Phil Richards, CEO of TAPP Water (Malta) Ltd, being introduced on the Malta Sustainability Forum