Drinking water from plastic bottles is bad for the environment as well as our health.

This was the message of the Drop It campaign, launched by Goumbook, which aims to reduce the use of plastic by getting the public and businesses to switch to drinking filtered tap water in reusable containers.

Tatiana Antonelli Abella, co-founder of Goumbook, said many residents were under the impression bottled water was better than tap water. "In fact, it's even worse for you," she said at the launch of the campaign.

The amount of chemicals that are extracted into water from being in plastic that is exposed to movement and heat is known to cause health problems."

The UAE has one of the highest rates of bottled water consumption in the world with each resident drinking an average of 250 litres of bottled water a year.

Ms Abella said the health concerns associated with bisphenol A (BPA), the chemical released in plastic bottles, should be of concern for consumers.

The European Food Safety Authority, however, said BPA posed no health concerns, although the Food and Drug Administration in the US, recently banned the use of the chemical in baby bottles.

Ms Abella said if anyone was not convinced of the health risks of BPA, the environmental effects of disposable plastic bottles should instead persuade people to curb their use.

Since only 20 per cent of plastic is recycled, many bottles end up in the sea, where it breaks down into small particles that are hazardous to marine life and humans who consume these animals.

Meanwhile, the waste that stays in landfills can take up to 1,000 years to break down.