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We need to start drinking recycled wastewater

bbc.com

11–20 of 84 posts

Re: We need to start drinking recycled wastewater

#11
Wouldn't most tap water in the US fit under this definition? My father used to work at a waste water treatment facility. At one end of the plant was all of the raw sewage that came in from the city, at the other end, it had been cleaned and purified to the point you could swim in it and probably be OK drinking from it. I know that from there they didn't just dump the water back into the local rivers and ponds, it went back to the water treatment facility not too far away where it found its way back into homes.

Re: We need to start drinking recycled wastewater

#12
post #8
post #7

Sounds like this needs a brand change. "Recycled" kind of implies that there is still something "left behind". Why not call it BluWater or something simple and marketing-like? Follow up with some blah text like "BluWater is the freshest and cleanest water humanity has ever drank! You can get it straight from the taps!"

Disturbingly, your extremely condescending idea is probably exactly the kind of thing that would actually work.

A condescending idea would have been to call it Brawndo. "It has electrolytes..."

Re: We need to start drinking recycled wastewater

#13

I genuinely do not understand the aversion to drinking recycled water. It's all recycled water!

Tell that to the homoeopaths /s

If drinking waste water makes you sick, drinking highly diluted waste water will cure you.

Re: We need to start drinking recycled wastewater

#14
post #7

Sounds like this needs a brand change. "Recycled" kind of implies that there is still something "left behind". Why not call it BluWater or something simple and marketing-like? Follow up with some blah text like "BluWater is the freshest and cleanest water humanity has ever drank! You can get it straight from the taps!"

"StarWater - Water purified by the sun. So pure that even astronauts drink it!"

Re: We need to start drinking recycled wastewater

#15
post #7

Sounds like this needs a brand change. "Recycled" kind of implies that there is still something "left behind". Why not call it BluWater or something simple and marketing-like? Follow up with some blah text like "BluWater is the freshest and cleanest water humanity has ever drank! You can get it straight from the taps!"

Normally it is called sanitized, but that doesn't make a good headline

Re: We need to start drinking recycled wastewater

#16

> finding that while 49% were willing to try recycled wastewater, 13% refused, and the rest weren't sure. This is the end result of an education system that has not prepared people for the modern world, if we engineer a solution that produces water of a purity greater than water from a reservoir and and half of people are still not sure it is safe to drink then we have a massive problem. For the record: I've no issue…

The same effect is noticed with GMO foods. They're better in all regards, yet there are people who are afraid of them because "not natural".

I don't think this has to do with the education system. My friend's father has a terminal illness, and in his attempt to understand and rationalize it, he thought that he did it to himself by leading an "unnatural" lifestyle. The man has a masters in mathematics and owned a software company, he's quite intelligent.

I think people just try to rationalize their situation, sometimes they rest on the idea that natural is better.

Re: We need to start drinking recycled wastewater

#17

> finding that while 49% were willing to try recycled wastewater, 13% refused, and the rest weren't sure. This is the end result of an education system that has not prepared people for the modern world, if we engineer a solution that produces water of a purity greater than water from a reservoir and and half of people are still not sure it is safe to drink then we have a massive problem. For the record: I've no issue…

There are other complexities. For many municipalities, regulation regarding artificial chemicals and dissolved pharmaceuticals is lacking or nonexistent. When you aren't sure of what's safe or not, it's better to be safe than sorry. And if the problem is information, is it the voter's fault for being uninformed or the establishment for insufficient propagation?

Re: We need to start drinking recycled wastewater

#18
post #5

Most tap water in Germany is "recycled" water. I think this goes for most of Europe? Drinking tap water and adding your on carbonate is even a thing here (German use the word as synonym for carbonated water). "If anything, recycled wastewater is relatively sweet" - Said no tap water drinker ever There are still worlds between the US and Europe..

I think this is not true.

Usually the recycled waste-water is send in to the rivers.

The fresh water usually comes from dams, ground water or river bank filtration (you don't suck out of the river, but from a well right next to it, so it get's filtered by the ground in between).

The water from the dams tastes really really good. The one from the big river (at least in my town) is very rich in minerals, not exactly the tastiest, but perfectly fine to drink too. The minerals build up in water cattle though and are annoying to clean off.

German tap-water is usually cleaner than german bottled water I think.

In the warmer parts of europe water is often is chlorinated I think, wouldn't want to drink it.

I didn't read the article, but I'd be afraid of purely recycled water. I know the fish have problems because of contraceptives, which are hard to filter out and in Great Britain there are traces of ataractics even in the ground water.

Re: We need to start drinking recycled wastewater

#19
post #5

Most tap water in Germany is "recycled" water. I think this goes for most of Europe? Drinking tap water and adding your on carbonate is even a thing here (German use the word as synonym for carbonated water). "If anything, recycled wastewater is relatively sweet" - Said no tap water drinker ever There are still worlds between the US and Europe..

Not true - ground water accounts for 80% of Germany's drinking water, with reservoirs accounting for the rest. Germany has a very strong set of waste water treatment laws, but that treated water is either used commercially, for irrigation, or dumped into rivers and lakes, just like it is here in the US.

Before you get all high and mighty with your anti-americanism, check your facts.

Re: We need to start drinking recycled wastewater

#20
post #5

Most tap water in Germany is "recycled" water. I think this goes for most of Europe? Drinking tap water and adding your on carbonate is even a thing here (German use the word as synonym for carbonated water). "If anything, recycled wastewater is relatively sweet" - Said no tap water drinker ever There are still worlds between the US and Europe..

Is it? I think most water here in Germany comes from a long-distance water supply that is filled with water from aquifers (which regenerate fast enough though).

Sure, the wastewater gets treated to be extremely clean, but I think it just gets pumped into rivers.

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