Pizza Hut supports Evening Standard's Water on Tap campaign
22/04/2008
Today, Pizza Hut, the UK's largest pizza restaurant business, becomes the first national dine-in restaurant company to pledge support for the Evening Standard's Water on Tap campaign. In this campaign, tap water is offered to customers as a matter of practice, rather than mineral water.
Sales of bottled mineral water have gone up over 6% a year, for over a decade - over 2 billion bottles are sold now, every year. As a result, we've seen an increase in the use of non-recyclable plastic bottles and a much higher carbon footprint per litre. It's quite clear that, in comparison to tap water, bottled water has significantly worsened the impact on the environment.
With over 165 restaurants in and around London and nearly 700 across the country, our involvement will mean the campaign will reach even more consumers nationwide. We want to help reduce the negative impact that bottled water has on our environment.
Research shows that one in five people are 'slightly nervous' or 'too scared' to ask for tap water. So Pizza Hut will not only make sure that tap water is freely available to all of its customers, but we'll go one step further and retrain all of our staff to actively offer tap water, instead. Starting right now, all front of house staff will be trained to offer tap water, ahead of bottled still or sparkling water, in response to a customer request.
Alasdair Murdoch, CEO Pizza Hut UK says,
"We're a family restaurant that's dedicated to offering our customers good value, and great tasting food in a relaxed and friendly environment. So we feel it's important to not only do our bit for the environment but also help remove the discomfort-factor our customers feel, when asking for tap water. We're going to take the initiative, and actively encourage them to opt for it, instead. This will bring even more value to our customers, too - as bottled water is 500 times more expensive than tap water."
Jeanette Longfield, Co-ordinator at Sustain, says,
"A large percentage of the bottled water we use is consumed in restaurants so it's great that such a well known restaurant business is backing the campaign to encourage people to help the environment by switching to drinking tap water."
Dame Yve Buckland, National Chair of the Consumer Council for Water, says,
"People should be given the option between tap water and bottled water when dining out. We are delighted that Pizza Hut is training its entire staff to make tap water available to its customers as the preferred option."