Message in a bottle

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(zenMachine @ Jul 4 2007, 08:58 AM) [snapback]472874[/snapback]</div>

I agree that MOST tap water I have drank have been a much better taste quality than of certain bottled water, Nestle is the worst IMO . We have rural water here and it taste worst than Nestle water. So I guess we will still buy bottled water . We even added a few filters nothing really gets rid of all the chlorine in the tap water,and whatever else is in there, now this is only speaking of our water in our small town.
But we have not done reverse osmosis yet, that will be the next step. I too hate to pay for bottled water.
and the plastic is getting way out of hand, I ask for paper bags when there is an option at the gocery store, for 1 they are biodegradable and 2 they are stronger than plastic bags, and 3, they keep food colder longer.

 

I can't stand Dasani and Aquafina. I haven't heard or tried the third one.

I can tell you the tap water in So. Cal sucks. I once did a taste test. I bought one of every brand I could find in the store and then poured a glass of tap. I let them all come to room temp because I think you can taste them better at room temp and often I end up drinking at room temp anway.

In the end I choose Fiji water. And that's what I buy. I reuse the water bottles. Eventually they get recycled. I do use tap for cooking and if I'm mixing something like KoolAid. I don't drink coffee but when I make tea I use tap. I don't think the water makes that much difference once you start mixing it or cooking with it. I'm not that much of a conniseur. But I stick by my "taste test". And I do know what comes out of my tap and it isn't pretty. Or tasty.

Water Quality San Diego

My water comes from Alvarado, which is usually the same or better than Miramar or Otay but still not great.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(zenMachine @ Jul 4 2007, 09:58 AM) [snapback]472874[/snapback]</div>

What about using a reverse osmosis filter on the tap water. How's the environmental impact withthat? It reduces the mineral content from 300 ppm to 10 ppm. You can definitely taste the difference. Plus you reap the benefits of public water standards. You just clean it just a little bit more.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priussoris @ Jul 4 2007, 10:29 AM) [snapback]472890[/snapback]</div>

I use string bags. They are stronger and hold more because they expand. There isn't much insulating value to either paper or plastic.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(burritos @ Jul 4 2007, 09:02 AM) [snapback]472907[/snapback]</div>

R/O wastes several gallons of water for each gallon of filtered water produced. You could always hook the wastewater line from the R/O filter up to a bucket instead of the drain and use the water for other purposes I suppose. I've had a knowledgeable water systems salesman tell me that in his opinion, R/O was overkill for anyone on city water (though not if you're on a well) and there were even some drawbacks to R/O filtered water, like removal of fluoride (might not be such a big deal with things like dental sealants now).

You can buy a decent R/O system for under $200 from Costco or Home Depot (and Lowes too probably) and install it yourself. I once paid Culligan nearly $800 to install one, and it was no better than the $200 one I installed myself in our other house.

 

In the backcountry and on my bicycle I use a laboratory grade Nalgene© bottle, otherwise I never drink from plastic bottles. I don't need the pthalates that leach out of the plastic and into the liquid. Plastic bottles are a scourge and show lack of responsibility of manufacturers. Without trying, just picking up what I walk or bicycle by, I recycle about $20 of plastic bottles every two weeks. What a waste! We should follow Germany's example and the example of the National Science Foundation at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, and precycle (eliminate waste and recycling beforehand).

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(skruse @ Jul 4 2007, 01:48 PM) [snapback]473044[/snapback]</div>

You do that too? Glad I'm not the only one. How much is PET worth? What about aluminium? I was thinking that I should start seperating the stuff from the other recyclables and selling it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tripp @ Jul 4 2007, 03:02 PM) [snapback]473059[/snapback]</div>

I separate glass, plastic and aluminum. I don't know what the payback is when you just dump them in the cans and get paid by the pound. But I asked about the redemption fee on the glass and was told if I counted out 50 bottles I'd get $5.00. That seems like better than by the pound and it also beats the redemption fee. I think.

At any rate I'm separating and redeeming the glass, plastic and aluminum beverage cans. For all other glass, plastic and metal that goes in the blue bins and the city gets it for free. I'm really trying to increase my recycling. All of my paper and cardboard goes in the blue bins as well.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Jul 4 2007, 02:13 PM) [snapback]473068[/snapback]</div>

They pick it up at your house though, right? Sadly there's no such option here, but I'd gladly take the stuff somewhere if it were close. $0.10/bottle is great. I seriously doubt that that exists here in CO though. The aluminium can definitely be sold, I'm just wondering if it's worth my while (I'll just recycle it otherwise). We recycle as much as we can (newspaper, glass, plastic, aluminium, steel cans, office paper, cardboard, paperboard, phone books). I was psyched to discover that I can recycle #5 plastic in addition to PET and HDPE, but I have to take it to the recycling center where I recycle cardboard, office paper, paperboard. Not a big deal, just can't do it curbside.

I regularly pick up plastic bottles and soda beer cans. I just bring them home and throw 'em in the bins. If I could make a little pocket change doing it, that would be even better.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tripp @ Jul 4 2007, 04:04 PM) [snapback]473109[/snapback]</div>

No. The blue bins are emptied every other week by the City and I get nothing for that but the satisfaction that it's being recycled instead of going into the land fill.

The other that I separate I have to take to an independent recycling center. I'm paid money for them so I don't mind separating them out. I have a little recycling center in my garage my Dad made out of PVC. Otherwise it would all go in the blue bin. We have rag and bone people who come around on trashday and pick through to find recyclables but my trash is pretty lean.

For things like styrofoam ghost poops (packing peanuts) I bag them and then put them out in the alley and put it on Craig's list. Someone comes and takes it to reuse. Probably for a home business. It's better than having to go buy new packing peanuts and keeps them out of the landfill. Bubblewrap gets bagged too. When the bag is full, out it goes and posted on Craig's list.

I bag my garden waste and take it to the landfill where they have a special area where they compost. They get my clippings for free and I get all of the compost and mulch I want. Next time I'm out there I'll take a picture. They have huge piles of stuff in various stages of decomposition. They also have big piles of wood and pallets for recycling. Before you enter the landfill there is a recycling area. You can bring your bottles and cans there if you like and get paid for them. There is also an area that will take old appliances. You don't get paid for them, you just leave them.

Los Angeles has the only carpet and carpet pad recycling company. I saw them on California Gold with Hewell Hauser. We really need more of those.

And someplace that will recycle sofas and mattresses.

 

Well, there it is. Thanks G. I'll have to look into what options are available here in CO.

 

I just do the Brita thing because I hate plastic bottles and lugging water. I am not sure how "good" it is but it tastes better than plain old Atlanta water. Lots of iron in my water.

 

I drank the tap water here (Northern Virginia) until they switched from chlorine to chloramine. Tried carbon filters, and that was OK but not great. Then Safeway installed a bottled water machine -- it filters the local tap water, you bring a gallon jug and fill it with the filtered water. Strikes me as being a good compromise -- their filtration works well, we reuse the gallon jugs until they leak, and they don't have to ship water around on trucks. And it's 43 cents a gallon. In case you want to see if you have one, in our store, the machine is next to the pharmacy section.

 

I don't know why people like to buy bottled water when you can buy a decent R/O system for under $200 and install it yourself, and make as much filtered water as you want.

 

I'll admit, we buy the bottles. But more for the bottles than the water. We write a date on the bottle when we put it in the fridge. Then we refill them a number of times from a 5 gallon dispensor that we refill weekly.
After about 2 weeks we recycle them, along with all paper, plastic, and glass. Aluminum, I collect and bring in for about $100 per year.

We do this for a couple of reasons. Our last house had the best tasting tap water imaginable, but our new house a mile away has a different tap water source and it doesn't taste nearly as good, esp. as it warms up.
So a friend of mine who lives near our old house brings me a 5 gallon jug every week to poker night and takes home the empty for refilling. So to use this as drinking water, we refill plastic bottles and keep them in the fridge. It's also a better way for making the baby formula. The first time we use the bottle (with the original water) it goes to the baby. Then the date goes on the bottle and we start refilling it. Every night I refill a bunch of bottles and toss the oldest one in the recycling bin. Works great, we have great tasting chilled water that is portable, and we recycle about 1 bottle per day for the whole family (refill about 6 bottles). That is, until someone catches a cold and then only they use the older bottles and we start some new fresh bottles.

 

A couple of weeks ago I was happy to see San Francisco take the lead in discouraging its residents from using bottled water. SF's leverage, of course, is severely limited: all it could do was ban the sale of bottled water on City property and prohibit the use of City funds to buy it (e.g., for a break room or a kids' day camp).

About 8 years ago I took the time to calculate as precisely as I could what the costs of various ways of securing "improved", non-tap water are. I ended up buying a simple Pur pitcher/filter and using our own tap water. This has been satisfactory.

Pur gives you a choice of buying its "one-stage" replacement filter, which (at least claims to) filters out bad-TASTING compounds, and its two-stage, which purports to filter potentially health-harming agents. I don't know if the latter claims are valid, but Pur does include with its filter packaging pretty extensive testing data.

Unfortunately, Pur has allowed its distribution network for selling filters practically collapse. Brita, and even GE filters are far easier to find. A false marketing claim recently allowed me to get a new $29 Pur pitcher out of Proctor and Gamble (yep, they bought 'em) and a $5 discount coupon toward new filters. Moreover, P&G has now started marketing a new supplemental fruit-flavor system, wherein you can add cartridges of any of three flavors to your (newly-adapted!) Pur pitcher, and dispense a shot of flavoring (no nutritiional values) into each glass/bottle you pour. It's ingenious (if obviously excessive), but I don't think it'll fly---at least not until P&G shores up that distribution network. Right now, Target is their most reliable outlet for the new stuff (after my having checked out Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Walgreen's, Long's, Rite-Aid and some other retailers).

The bottled water thing has kinda blown me away as one of the most extravagent misuses of resources seen in my lifetime. (How about a poll on what we think ARE the worst abuses of resources produced by government/business?) I'm glad to see someone attempt to put the brakes on it, but I think the genie's out of the bottle, as it were.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusenvy @ Jul 6 2007, 02:51 AM) [snapback]473881[/snapback]</div>

You're assuming people have the mechanical ability to do such a thing. Some of us just didn't inherit that gene. I have to hire someone for everything, even simple things like putting up curtain rods.

The tap water here where I live tastes awful, so I drink bottled water. However just the other day I bought a Brita pitcher. Haven't taken it out of the box yet, since I still have a gallon of water in the fridge, but I'll start using it this weekend. Hopefully it will do the trick.