Can the Bottled Water

Quicktip

by Kate Heyhoe

Alice Waters, the patron saint of all foods good and green, has banned bottled water from her legendary restaurant Chez Panisse. Most bottled water brands are owned by two giants, Coca Cola and Nestlé. But that’s not the issue. It turns out that public water systems, regulated by the EPA, undergo testing for bacteria and contaminants several times a day. The FDA, though, controls bottled water, and only requires a once weekly test of the source, the results of which can be kept private. So restaurants from NYC to SF Bay are going back to filtered tap water, and even converting it to sparking water in-house.

This makes such good sense at home, too. With tap water, you help keep the recycling bin clear, and you’re drinking locally (instead of trucking in water to grocery stores from some distant plant, then driving to the store yourself to buy plastic bottles of the stuff, and sending the empties on yet another journey to a recycling center or landfill. By the way, if you do have plastic water bottles on hand, fill them up and stick them in your fridge. They’ll keep the refrigerator from working so hard to chill the vacant spaces, and you can always pull them out when you need more room.

Quick Tips

Find more tips to shrink your cookprint in Kate Heyhoe’s book Cooking Green