Web Exclusive! Product Breakthroughs Turn Water Green
When it comes to conserving water, the United States suffers from multiple personality disorder. There are those who carefully limit every drop of consumption, while others splash away as though there is an endless supply. Some users disconnect lawn sprinklers, limit showers and recycle grey water. Others water landscaping when it's raining and drain their water heaters with every bath.
This contradiction was illustrated perfectly in two consecutive days in our nation's top national newspapers. On Dec. 18, 2002, the Wall Street Journal ran a front-page article ("A Tiger in the Tank: High-Pressure Toilets Shake up Bathrooms") which focused negatively--and selfishly--on the "inconvenience" of noisy press-assisted low-consumption toilets. On Dec. 19, USA Today offered a better take ("West's dry areas get creative with water use") by profiling home and land owners' resourceful water-conserving techniques in the drought-plagued West.