What mugs! We waste gallons of water making tea

MOST of us are probably guilty of doing it... filling up the kettle when we are making only one cuppa.

Now research shows that Britain’s tea drinkers waste water, energy and money boiling 85million litres – or 18.5million gallons – a day more than they need.

Only one in five heats just enough for one mug when making tea.

Most put enough water in for two cups even if they don’t need it, an energy company’s survey of 2,000 adults shows.

There are almost 50million tea drinkers in the UK, on average consuming 3.65 cups a day.

But they boil 2.34 cups of water for each one they need, the research for Utilita Energy found.

This means the water for more than 240million cups is left in the kettle each day and may end up being tipped down the sink.

That is enough to fill more than 40 Olympic swimming pools.

Previous research by Strathclyde University has shown that boiling all this extra water adds almost £150million a year to the nation’s energy bills. Much of the energy is wasted reheating water left in the kettle from the previous cuppa.

Jamie Peters, from Friends of the Earth, said: ‘We might as well run the tap straight down the sink.

‘It’s usually an eye- opener to see where and how we waste resources.

‘To find out the daily brew is a climate-change culprit due to wasted energy means we should readjust thinking along with water levels, because one cuppa just doesn’t take much water. This is a classic case of little things adding up, and it takes no effort to change. Water is life – don’t waste a drop.’

Around 44 per cent of adults admit the main way they waste energy at home is by overfilling the kettle, the Utilita survey found.

Asked how many cups of water they estimated they boiled each time they made a cup of tea for one, almost 42 per cent said they boiled enough for two cups. Around one in nine heated enough for four cups.

A spokesman for Utilita’s Energy High 5 campaign said: ‘It might not seem like a lot, but think about all the wasted water in kettles across the country.

‘That certainly adds up, both in terms of energy use and water that’s coming out the tap and generally going straight back down the sink.’

The survey found 95 per cent of us are tea-drinkers, or almost 50million UK adults. If the average adult drinks tea 3.65 times a day, but boils 2.34 mugs of water for each cuppa they need, that means 243,745,822 mugs of wasted hot water being boiled in British kitchens every day.

As the average mug holds 350ml, that works out at more than 85million litres – enough to fill more than 40 Olympic-size pools each day.