ENVIRONMENT Minister Phil Woolas has labelled the nation's love affair with bottled water `daft'.

The Oldham East and Saddleworth MP said the hundreds of millions spent on bottled water is `morally unacceptable'.

He told the M.E.N: "It's the consumer's choice, but it does seems daft to buy bottled water when it's free out of the tap.

"If you are on a train journey, for example, and can't get access to tap water, then it makes sense - but to spend money on a bottled product when we have some of the best quality water in the world is silly."

Mr Woolas says the industry uses up resources to make a bottle simply to move water, sometimes thousands of miles, only for the bottle to then be dumped in landfill - even recycling the bottle uses up energy.

Green campaigners say it takes seven litres of water to make a one-litre plastic bottle.

Recycling

Consumer groups estimate 13bn plastic bottles of water are sold in Britain each year - of which three billion are recycled and a further ten billion are thrown away.

Mr Woolas said a 'snobbery about tap water' and a fear of waiter's reactions stopped people asking for it in restaurants.

He said leading restaurants in Paris were combating this by offering tap water in designer carafes - and that Thames Water was planning to sponsor a similar scheme.

Development charity Unicef launched a major campaign against bottled water last year.

One of their big successes has been in New York where city bosses have rebranded their tap water as `NY Tap' as part of a campaign to make it more fashionable.

Restaurants in the city ask for a donation for tap water, with the money going to projects providing clean drinking water in developing countries.

Mr Woolas' Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has begun using tap water in meetings and says it is urging other government departments to to the same.

What do you think? Snobbery or better taste? Have your say below.