Filtered is better

Lose the bottle

Everyone who drinks water knows that in recent years the growth in bottled water sales has been explosive. For good reason. Once people get used to pure water, they can’t live without it.

Trouble is, bottled water comes in… bottles. Every day more than 60 million plastic bottles are thrown away – and that’s just in America. Not recycled. Thrown away. Into incinerators, landfills and, inevitably, our oceans. Most plastic bottles of water today are made with PET plastic, which is, theoretically, recyclable. But demand for bottled water has grown so rapidly, even the best efforts at recycling cannot keep up: In the ‘90s, 2 out of 5 bottles were recycled. By 2005, the rate was down to only 1 out of 6.* Between 1997 and 2005 bottled water sales rose 700%. And the number of bottles thrown away increased six-fold.

Let’s not forget the environmental impact of manufacturing and distributing a bottle of water in the first place. Every bottle of water that comes into Manhattan, for example, arrives by truck. Think of what just delivering each bottle consumes in gasoline, air pollution, and traffic-induced lost productivity. Of course, a plastic bottle is made from petroleum to begin with, with inevitable degradation of the plastic and dissolving of phthalates into the water.

Gas expensive? Still cheaper than water.

Last time you bought bottled water, remember what you paid for it? You probably don’t want to think about it. So let’s look at averages. Every day in the US about 70 million bottles of water are consumed.* Bottles of all sizes. So let’s say the average size is 25.6 oz. – one fifth of a gallon. Say the average cost is $1. (It’s probably more, right?) Anyway, that works out to at least $5/gallon. Which means gasoline is still quite a bargain at $3.50.

The cost of filtering your own water varies, of course, depending on how fine a system you get, and how often you replace cartridges. Including the cost of the initial system and the first five years or so of cartridges, it works out to anywhere between 2 cents and 10 cents/gallon. (Quite a deal, even at the high end.)

If that doesn’t convince you, well, with water weighing in at 8.3454 lbs./gallon, that’s, let’s see... How many tons of water does having your own filtration system save you from lugging home?

FIltered on demand

Of course, one of the great benefits of filtered water on demand is that you start using it for every application of consumable water: Coffee brewing, food-prep, your eight glasses a day, a pitcher at the dinner table, taking to the gym. When it’s so easily available, and at pennies a gallon, you’ll find it a cinch to get your full measure of pure water every day.

It has been said that if the money Americans spent on bottled water were instead invested in improving water infrastructures in the Third World, countless lives could be saved. It’s an unnecessary choice. By using filtration, we can have pure water easily accessible, at a very low price, tread lightly on the earth, and free up resources for improving water conditions worldwide.

* Container Recycling Institute

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	Filtered is better Lose the bottle Everyone who drinks water knows that in recent years the growth in bottled water sales has been explosive. For good reason. Once people get used to pure water, they can’t live without it. Trouble is, bottled water comes in… bottles. Every day more than 60 million plastic bottles are thrown away – and that’s just in America. Not recycled. Thrown away. Into incinerators, landfills and, inevitably, our oceans. Most plastic bottles of water today are made with PET plastic, which is, theoretically, recyclable. But demand for bottled water has grown so rapidly, even the best efforts at recycling cannot keep up: In the ‘90s, 2 out of 5 bottles were recycled. By 2005, the rate was down to only 1 out of 6.* Between 1997 and 2005 bottled water sales rose 700%. And the number of bottles thrown away increased six-fold. Let’s not forget the environmental impact of manufacturing and distributing a bottle of water in the first place. Every bottle of water that comes into Manhattan, for example, arrives by truck. Think of what just delivering each bottle consumes in gasoline, air pollution, and traffic-induced lost productivity. Of course, a plastic bottle is made from petroleum to begin with, with inevitable degradation of the plastic and dissolving of phthalates into the water. Gas expensive? Still cheaper than water. Last time you bought bottled water, remember what you paid for it? You probably don’t want to think about it. So let’s look at averages. Every day in the US about 70 million bottles of water are consumed.* Bottles of all sizes. So let’s say the average size is 25.6 oz. – one fifth of a gallon. Say the average cost is $1. (It’s probably more, right?) Anyway, that works out to at least $5/gallon. Which means gasoline is still quite a bargain at $3.50. The cost of filtering your own water varies, of course, depending on how fine a system you get, and how often you replace cartridges. Including the cost of the initial system and the first five years or so of cartridges, it works out to anywhere between 2 cents and 10 cents/gallon. (Quite a deal, even at the high end.) If that doesn’t convince you, well, with water weighing in at 8.3454 lbs./gallon, that’s, let’s see... How many tons of water does having your own filtration system save you from lugging home? FIltered on demand Of course, one of the great benefits of filtered water on demand is that you start using it for every application of consumable water: Coffee brewing, food-prep, your eight glasses a day, a pitcher at the dinner table, taking to the gym. When it’s so easily available, and at pennies a gallon, you’ll find it a cinch to get your full measure of pure water every day. It has been said that if the money Americans spent on bottled water were instead invested in improving water infrastructures in the Third World, countless lives could be saved. It’s an unnecessary choice. By using filtration, we can have pure water easily accessible, at a very low price, tread lightly on the earth, and free up resources for improving water conditions worldwide. * Container Recycling Institute	“More than 60 million plastic bottles end up in landfills and incinerators every day – a total of about 22 billion last year. Six times as many plastic water bottles were thrown away in the US in 2004 as in 1997. From sea to shining sea, plastic water bottles are clogging the streams and tributaries that feed into America’s rivers. The bottles that are not contained by fallen trees and other debris along our inland waterways are floating out into the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. From there they are finding their way to the shores of island communities and coastal countries that are themselves only just beginning to experience the problems associated with plastic beverage bottle waste.” – Container Recycling Institute www.container-recycling.org