

Today on KCRW's Evan Kleiman show Good Food, she interviewed consumer tap water advocate Eric Yaverbaum who is crusading to get people to see the error of their bottled-water ways. He argued convincingly that tap water represents a huge burden to our global well being, citing the amount of resources and waste resulting from our consumption of bottled tap water. Most bottled water is, he pointed out, from the tap.
Bottled water was a brilliant stroke of marketing. Wish I'd thought of it. Hey, we used to buy milk, beer etc out of big buckets and barrels not too long ago. All they did with water was give it brand, like other commodities had.
Use a steel bottle instead of plastic for your tap water and you'll fix most of the problems.
Posted by: Ed S. | August 30, 2008 at 02:00 PM
I have a steel "Thermos" brand coffee thermos that works great with filtered water. The water in my area really isn't bad, and so my Britta filter probably makes the water as good or better than bottled water from the store.
I bought the steel thermos because I had a glass lined one that broke. I've dropped the steel lined one many times over the last 15 years without problem. It is designed on the same concept as the glass ones, so it keeps my water cool all day without ice.
Posted by: Scooby214 | August 30, 2008 at 02:11 PM
I use a Brita filter and a CamelBack water bottle. I rarely buy bottled water.
Posted by: jeffrey McMahon | August 30, 2008 at 02:28 PM
I entered my zip in the tappening website, and my city's main water reservoir appears quite safe. The backup reservoir, however, has a couple of red bars on the graph. I'm glad they only use the backup reservoir in instances of failure at the main plant, or in drought situations.
Posted by: Scooby214 | August 30, 2008 at 02:33 PM
I'm scared. I haven't put my zip in yet. I should.
Posted by: jeffrey McMahon | August 30, 2008 at 02:47 PM
I use a Brita filter too.
Posted by: Tom Welch | August 30, 2008 at 04:06 PM
The website shows that Torrance water has 10 contaminants. It doesn't look that good after all.
Posted by: jeffrey McMahon | August 30, 2008 at 04:28 PM
How many contaminants do you think the average store bought bottled water has?
Posted by: Scooby214 | August 30, 2008 at 06:09 PM
I wonder if there's much a difference. I used to pay about $600 a year for Arrowhead delivery. I wonder how much safer, if at all, that water was.
Posted by: jeffrey McMahon | August 30, 2008 at 06:13 PM
Tappening.com is a greenwashing PR firm that is out to self promote...LAME
Posted by: Tappening | August 30, 2008 at 09:04 PM
Greenwashing or not, the dubious claims of bottled water industry make for an interesting debate and secondly people should be more aware of their water quality and his website links people to that info.
Posted by: jeffrey McMahon | August 31, 2008 at 09:24 AM