Seattle is advertising their drinking water--which comes from fresh mountain streams--to begin to reduce the use of bottled water. Are other cities going to follow this great example?

Don’t know if they will, but it’s a great idea.

Should work for NYC – their water is delicious.

So you mean just that they are advertising their tap water? Or are they distributing as bottled water or something?! I don’t see any benefit if they bottle it, but making people more aware of the quality of the drinking water is a great step. In a previous thread I suggested that North American cities adopt the old world European practice of having water public water fountains around town where everyone can refill their own bottles… I think it would go a long way to making bottled water – and the associated unnecessary waste bottles – obsolete.

For some perspective on this issue, go here and scroll down to the “Plastic Bottles, 2007” piece. It depicts the number of plastic bottles used in the US every five minutes.

Certainly a good idea – if your drinking water comes from clean source such as theirs.

@susanc, I hope you are being facetious.

The tap water here on Long Island does not taste pure, so I doubt they can advertise something like this here. Maybe upstate in the Catskill or Adirondak mountains they would be able to make a point of spring fed water.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana (where I live) has been doing this for 10 years or so. Our water is supposed to be in the top 5 in the nation or something.

Needless to say, you still see people with water bottles everywhere.

@Eambos Virtually all tap water is purer than bottles water, Eambos. Also, you should try a blind taste test with your tap water and various types of bottled water and see if you can really tell the difference. See these threads (One and two) for some great links.

As to the original question, yes other cities are doing it and Seattle is not even first:

New York City
Minneapolis/St. Paul
Memphis
Boston
Salt Lake CIty
Oakland, CA
Portland, OR
Baltimore
San Francisco
Among others . . .

@maverick: What I heard was a radio ad proclaiming how good and pure Seattle tap water is, and knowing this, people might stop buying bottled water and just drink delicious water from the tap. Obviously, what has to happen now is to find good—not plastic—bottles that can be filled repeatedly with tap water, providing the convenience of bottled water, without all the waste of bottled water.

@skfinkel: well then I can full endorse that! ;) I still think public fountains are a great idea that N.A. should steal borrow from old-world europe.

@Eambos: no, see Marina’s list? NYC is at the top of it. The water there comes from somewhere upstate which must have some kind of nice limestone or other filtering naturalness. Always been lovely. Whereas in Virginia, where I used to visit my grandparents, in a lovely old tree-shaded house in the country, the water tasted disgusting. Paradoxical but trew.

Now I do see. I was actually very suprised by that. With all of the talk of prescrption drugs leaching into our water in the last few months, I did not think that would be true.

@Eambos: surprises can be good. Now, who is making the good new portable water bottles with no plastic, no aluminum, and lightweight? Entrepreneurs, anyone? And if they are being made already, we need to see them advertised. marketing, anyone?