The debate about how wasteful it is to buy bottled water never seems to go away around the Big Apple (home of the #1 water around—at least in the state.) But this weekend, a reader writing into the Times' City section wanted to put a specific dollar amount on tap versus bottles. A spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection was able to do just that, telling the paper that city tap water costs $5.99 per 100 cubic feet, eight ounces of New York water cost five one-hundredths of one cent, or $0.0005, including the cost of treating the wastewater. That makes the same size eight ounce bottle of Poland Spring check in at 2000 times the cost at one dollar. Of course picking up a bottle of New York City tap water in stores will cost you even more than that. more ›

Not too long ago New York's tap water hit the marketplace; bottled and labeled TAP'D NY, the company even suggested refilling the $1.50 bottle from a tap when its empty. Craig Zucker is the man behind the idea, a for-profit business that gets its product from the city's public water system "to source the world's best tasting tap water, purify it through reverse osmosis and bottle it locally, leaving out ludicrous transportation miles." Zucker told us a little bit about his idea, future "water pairings" taking place around the city, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. more ›