Eco-conscious Parisians can now get their sparkling water free at a new public drinking fountain.

The fountain has been installed in the Jardin de Reuilly park in the east of the city by publicly-owned water company Eau de Paris.

It injects carbon dioxide into regular tap water to make it bubbly, and chills it before delivering it to consumers.

Separate taps also provide a still version of the beverage, both refrigerated and un-refrigerated, and again pumped directly from the city's own public water supply.

The French are the world's eighth biggest consumers of bottled water, downing an average of 128 litres each of the still or sparkling beverage in 2009, according to the Earth Policy Institute. That generated over 262,000 tonnes of plastic waste, while just making the bottles consumed close to 4.5 million barrels of crude oil.

For lovers of sparkling water, however, switching to the tap version will still mean a trek to the public park rather than picking up a six-pack from the supermarket, and there's no guarantee that consumers will prove willing.