Among the many reasons to invest in water filtration products – pitchers, countertop filters, water bottles, and RV filters, to name a few - is to help reduce the number of plastic bottles that end up in our landfills
The numbers are staggering. According to EarthDay.org, Americans purchase about 50 billion water bottles per year, averaging about 13 bottles per month for every person in the country. Worldwide, the numbers become even more eye-popping. A recent article in the magazine Fast Company notes that around the globe, people are using almost 500 billion plastic water bottles per year; that number is predicted to grow to 580 billion by 2021.
It wouldn’t be so bad if all these bottles were recycled. But according to the Fast Company piece, it’s estimated that between 5 million and 13 million tons of plastic ends up in waterways every year, endangering marine life and creating an environmental crisis. Polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, the plastic used to manufacture most water bottles, can take even longer. Some scientists argue that PET never completely decomposes. We don’t have to tell you, never is a very long time.
Water filtration products, like the ones from CLEAR2O®, not only provide clean, pure water free of virtually all contaminants, they help make a significant dent in the overuse of plastic bottles – and the subsequent environmental damage they create. Of course, there are a number of companies that develop and manufacture filtration products. And while we are confident in the quality of our products with regards to effectiveness, flow rates, durability, and other parameters versus our competitors, we acknowledge that all water filtration products play a role in reducing unnecessary plastic waste.
Decreasing plastic usage and the subsequent ecological impact should be more than enough reason to switch to water filtration products and away from bottled water. But if that isn’t enough for you – along with the quality of the water that these products deliver – we can provide another compelling incentive.
Back in June, researchers from the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) found 'high levels' of arsenic in bottled water sold at Whole Foods and Walmart. Some of the samples contained 18 parts per billion of arsenic - a level that exceeds the allowable limit of 10 parts per billion set by the US Food and Drug Administration.
But arsenic is not the only culprit. Recent news reports have also shown that microplastics, lead, chromium, PFAS, pharmaceuticals and other agriculture runoff are showing up in bottled drinking water (as well as in tap water).
The microplastics present a particularly ironic situation. As mentioned earlier, only a small percentage of plastic water bottles get recycled; far too many enter the oceanways, where they break down into microplastics themselves, according to an article on the website Earth911.com. The article goes on to state that “this creates a cascade effect with the microplastics from degraded plastic water bottles subsequently turning up in newly bottled water.” So, in a strange plot twist, we may end up drinking minute amounts of the very plastic bottles that contain our bottled water.
None of this information is meant to scare you or make you apprehensive about drinking bottled or even tap water; millions of people do it every day with no harmful effects (at least not short-term). But when there is a better alternative – using highly effective filtration products from CLEAR2O® to remove these contaminants – the only question we can ask is, why wouldn’t you?
The planet will be healthier for it. And there’s a good chance you will be, too.
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