--- title: How Recycling Rainwater Could Beat California's Drought description: Why we don't recycle rainwater, why Cuba isn't more free yet, how women are driving the election again and more. canonical: https://time.com/4153447/beat-california-drought-rain-recycling/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-17T17:01:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:43:47.811Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How Recycling Rainwater Could Beat California's Drought og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4153447/beat-california-drought-rain-recycling/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Recycling Rainwater Could Beat California's Drought twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # How Recycling Rainwater Could Beat California's Drought > Sponsored content. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Dec 17, 2015 5:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Dec 17, 2015 5:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**Why don’t we recycle rainwater?**](http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-water-recycling-20151217-story.html) By Matt Stevens in the Los Angeles Times **2\.** [**It’s been a year since U.S.-Cuba relations warmed. Is Cuba more free?**](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/one-year-after-rapprochement-cuba-is-no-freer/2015/12/16/a6e0f3f6-a411-11e5-ad3f-991ce3374e23%5Fstory.html) By Charles Lane in the Washington Post **3\.** [**In American politics, women are back in the driver’s seat.**](http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/iowas-women-could-be-donald-trumps-undoing/) By Clare Malone in FiveThirtyEight **4\.** [**America’s opioid abuse problem didn’t start on the streets. It started in the doctor’s office.**](http://www.psmag.com/health-and-behavior/family-doctors-america-opioids) By Francie Diep in Pacific Standard **5\.** [**When we debate monuments from America’s past, context matters.**](http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/opinion/14286742-55/guest-column-jacksons-momument-was-errected-to-celebrate-new-orleans-so-how-do-we-decide-the-fate-of) By Walter Isaacson in the New Orleans Advocate  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4153447/beat-california-drought-rain-recycling/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4153447/beat-california-drought-rain-recycling/"},"headline":"How Recycling Rainwater Could Beat California's Drought","datePublished":"2015-12-17T17:01:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:43:47.811Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4153447/beat-california-drought-rain-recycling/","keywords":["Innovation","Civil War","Drought","Racism","Overdose","Cuba","trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4153447/beat-california-drought-rain-recycling/","name":"How Recycling Rainwater Could Beat California's Drought"}}]}] ```