Recycled toilet water is just as tasty as bottled water, according to a new study.
In the first ever ‘blind’ test of ‘toilet to tap’ water, volunteers even admitted they preferred it to drinking tap water.
Scientists at the University of California, Riverside, today called for marketing campaigns to make sewage water ‘less scary’.
They claim people have to accept drinking water that comes directly from toilets amid fears of a global water shortage.
Recycled toilet water is safe to drink because it contains no harmful components, which are all flushed out before it enters the drinking supply.
In the first ever ‘blind’ taste test of ‘toilet to tap’ water, volunteers admitted they preferred it to drinking ordinary tap water
Evoking disgust reactions
Daniel Harmon, lead author, said: ‘It seems that this term [wastewater], and the idea of recycled water in general, evokes disgust reactions.
‘It is important to make recycled water less scary to people who are concerned about it, as it is an important source of water now and in the future.’
How was the study carried out?
The new study, published in the scientific journal Appetite, saw 143 volunteers take part in a ‘blind’ taste test involving indirect potable reuse (IDR) water.
Researchers placed IDR-treated water, tap water and commercially bottled water in three identical cups that weren’t labelled.
Participants were then asked to rank the taste of each of the three different types of waters on a scale ranging from one to five.
What did the study find?
The researchers, who thought the waters would score equally, were baffled when tap water emerged as the least preferred option.
Volunteers who were branded as nervous or anxious were found to like the taste of the IDR-treated and bottled water more.
However, participants defined as being more open to new experiences were found to find little difference in taste between the three samples.
Professor Mary Gauvain, co-author of the study, said: ‘The groundwater-based water was not as well liked as IDR or bottled water.
‘We think that happened because IDR and bottled water go through remarkably similar treatment processes.’
Professor Gauvain added this means they tend to have ‘low levels of the types of tastes’ that people tend to dislike.
Women prefer bottled water
In a separate finding, scientists unearthed how women are almost twice as likely to prefer bottled water than men.
They believe this is because women register higher ‘disgust reactions’ and they are more vocal when they aren’t keen on something.
Researchers concluded that recycled water should be marketed in the same way as bottled water. They also said campaigns should be aimed at women.
The World Economic Forum’s annual survey of opinion leaders last year identified water crises as the top global risk over the next decade.
Two-thirds of humanity currently live in zones that experience water scarcity at least one month a year. Half of those people are in China and India.
The notion of drinking recycled wastewater has gained momentum in California recently amid years of drought.
Six water agencies in the Golden State already use technology dubbed ‘from toilet to tap’, including the city of Los Angeles.
The IDR system recycles used water and places it back into the drinking supply.
Scientists have repeatedly tested the safety of IDR – but no experiments on its taste had ever been conducted prior to this.