I recently took a cross-country road trip from NYC to Los Angeles and stopped in 14 Cities in between. The trip took a week, a lot of gas, money, and time (two weeks) and a variety of different water bottles that I taste tested when bored and thirsty driving along endless roads. There were interesting findings…here are a few

First stop, Atlantic City: Stayed at The Trump. The only water available on premise, “Trump Ice” which tasted salty and just felt wrong. I don’t see the logic and I wouldn’t touch the stuff ever again.

It was served lukewarm, so the name really didn’t live up to the product’s name…

Next:

Baltimore, Maryland

“Blood: Water Baltimore”

Didn’t sound enticing and cost $5 but I’m prone to pay the price for a cause. 

The money supposedly goes to handle the processes, administration, and leadership involved in building water wells in Africa…

Alabama:

The  only water available at Gas Stations and Convenience Stores in Montgomery, Alabama. i don’t trust it.  Their slogan is, “enhanced with minerals for a pure, fresh taste.”

This is coming from the manufacturers of Coca-Cola. 

Cedar Hill, TX

Christ water. Worth trying, tasted metallic, perhaps this was the part of the experience.

New Orleans: Buying “Give Water” did not help me believe that the city is improving since the horrific aftermath of Katrina. Somehow, drinking Give water prompted guilt because I am capable of doing rather than drinking and paying to help the cause…

I’ll choose this:

and my source: 

The almighty Tap. You can buy 1,000 gallons of tap water for the price of one bottle of water and scientific tests show that bottled water is no better for you than tap water, on average.

and maybe this:

And if bottled water is the only option, below is the listing of the bottled water I’ve tasted, in rough order of preference–I  haven’t conduced a study to test the contents of the following bottled water but I based this list on taste:

1. Volvic

2. Whole Foods 365 electrolyte-enhanced

3. Phoenix, Arizona’s tap water

4. Smart Water

5. NYC’s tap water

And my least favored:

There are scary stats that make me think before I quench my thirst:

The AP recently reported and released a comprehensive survey of the drinking water for more than 28 million Americans has detected the widespread but low-level presence of pharmaceuticals and hormonally active chemicals.

Most bottled waters—whose sources could be municipal tap, aquifier, or spring waters—are  treated to a number of processes, such as being flashed with ultraviolet light to get rid of bacteria and other unwanted organisms. In fact, bottled water manufacturers often distill their water so heavily that they actually reintroduce minerals later for taste.

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Found this photo in National Geographic

Caption: A Chinese man transports plastic bottles and containers for recycling in Haikou, China, the world’s third largest consumer of bottled water, according to a new report released by the nonprofit Earth Policy Institute. Bottled water is often no healthier than tap water, the organization says, but it can be 10,000 times more expensive.

Me on Miami Beach circa 1985

Right now I am living in Syria with an old divorcée who is very stingy, or, um, economical.  She was already re-using her greywater so we had no problem putting this action into effect.  There are several ways to do this, some of which are more comprehensive and others, baby steps, shall we say, that still save a lot of water.  They also make you far more aware of the amount of water that you’re using, which can be eye opening.

The easiest way to reuse greywater is simply to put a receptacle, such as a bucket or a bowl, in the sink.  If you’re using organic or natural soaps, you can reuse this water to water plants.  Otherwise, you can use it to flush the toilet.  I was surprised that when I brushed my teeth and rinsed my mouth I used a whole little bucket worth of water (perhaps one to two liters).  But I was able to dump it all into the toilet instead of just letting it run down the drain.

Similarly, we use the dirty water from the washing machine to flush the toilet or my host mom will use it to mop the yard.  We also have plants growing in the courtyard so we use greywater that doesn’t have soap in it (all the detergent in Syria is pretty toxic, although the olive oil soap is not) in the garden as well.  As was pointed out by Alice in the “Tortoise Garden” article, water that has bits of food waste in it is actually great for the plants.

And lastly it’s very easy to put a stopper in the tub when you’re having a shower and use that water to flush the toilet as well.  It’s not terribly glamourous but it is a lot better than wasting all that water.  

Of course, these are all temporary measures and the best solution would be to re-jig the pipes and switch to all organic soaps and detergents.  For people living in Europe and the States this is probably a lot more feasible as there is a great variety of natural soaps which are not too much more expensive than normal ones (probably you can find them online in bulk for a good price).  But otherwise, try the bucket-in-the-sink move or stopping up the tub when you’re having a shower.  Once you’re used to using water twice, it actually hurts to see it just run down the drain!

My girlfriend Lucy doing the “bow pose”.