Avoiding Bottled Water

If you need convincing that water in plastic bottles is not good for the environment, bear in mind that Greece currently only recycles 7% of its waste and that 80% of plastic ends up in the sea. Bottles may also take as much as a 1,000 years to degrade. Bottled water isn’t good for your health either: testing of 11 different brands revealed that 93% of bottled water contained microplastics and twice as much as the average tap water. Nor is bottled water good for your wallet: it’s generally between 100 and 300 times more expensive than both tap and filtered water.

The water company that tests Paros’s water on a regular basis certifies that it is safe to drink, though the water is certainly harder in some areas and, because of high demand, the amount of salt in the water, from Naoussa supply, goes up in Summer. You can find more information about the local water supply on the DEYAP website and the water test results in English here.

If you want to be cautious about it, DEYAP has installed water distribution machines (see the map above for locations), which are coin or prepaid-card operated and offer excellent water that, thanks to a process of reverse osmosis, is much softer than the water that comes straight from the tap. Coins sometimes stick in the machines, so you may want to stock up on refill cards you can get at KEP in front of the windmill in the port or at DEYAP’s office. 

You can also get a refill in most cafes and restaurants or any of the places that are are part of the Refill Greece campaign, where you can ask for a free glass of water or refill your own bottle with filtered tap water. See map above.

If you don’t have a reusable bottle yet, see this list to find out where to buy one. 

Please let me know if you have updates or if you are aware of other places that are not listed here.