Point of Use Water Filtration = Less Single-Use Plastic Waste

Recycling has become so ingrained into the worldwide culture that it is difficult to remember a time where separating our plastics from our food waste wasn’t a standard practice.  There’s no doubt that recycling is still a valuable tool in the environmental landscape. But, have we now become so reliant on plastic, single-use, containers that the recycling movement is no longer enough to keep up with our consumption of bottled water? But what can we do?  Well, without delving too far into the overall environmental debate we thought back to a great lesson from the classic Schoolhouse Rocks…Reduce, Re-use, Recycle! More specifically, we want to focus on one way we can reduce our reliance on single-use water bottles through the use of home filtration products.  A home filtration system, combined with an eco-friendly reusable water bottle, is a great step towards reducing your environmental footprint (find a current list of eco-friendly bottles here: https://www.ecokarma.net/best-water-bottles/).

Besides the environmental benefits, clean drinking water will help your overall health and well being. Studies show that bottled water can contain chemicals from the plastic, plus filtering your own water is cost effective and will make things like your morning coffee, hot tea, and general home cooking taste much better.

So for this post we are going to focus specifically on Point of Use (POU) water filtration products.  As opposed to Point of Entry (POE) filtration systems which treat water as it enters the home (think water softeners), Point of Use filtration focuses on the water you use for specific tasks like cooking, drinking, and even bathing.  POE systems create an overall better quality of water and work great in conjunction with POU systems to create a total solution for your home.  However, our hearts (and stomachs) here at Milcarsky’s are still fully invested in the home kitchen and this is where a POU water filtration product can truly “sparkle”.

Many of the top appliance brands offer excellent POU home filtration products.  Still, we are going to focus on a true pioneer of the industry.  Everpure has been in business since 1933 and their products are found throughout the hospitality industry and offer this same technology in their residential line.

With that being said, let’s take a look at a few of Everpure’s product offerings to see how you can improve your health, cooking and environment all while receiving better quality water. Not everyone wants, or needs, extensive purification of the water coming into their home.  Despite the fact that drinking water can be tainted in many areas, most of the United States has drinking water that is well within legal limits.  But legal doesn’t always equate to good tasting, nor does it always mean it is free from impurities that you simply would rather not ingest.  The Environmental Working Group offers a great tool that allows you to see exactly what contaminants to look for in your local tap water.  You can search by zip-code to see just how “clean” your municipal water is. We’ve also provided a great video from the EWG at the bottom of this post that explains what exactly can be lurking in your local water.

Great Water Straight From The Tap

Changing our habits as consumers is vital in making progress towards cutting back on single-use plastic use.  But let’s be honest, changing a daily habit that we consider healthy (drinking water regularly) is going to be very difficult. So, probably the most important factor in cutting back on plastic use, while also making sure your water is safe and healthy, is going to be convenience.  What can be more convenient than having access to purified, drinking water straight from the tap? The Everpure EF-6000 is a great choice for anywhere you want fresh, clean tasting water, and since it does not require a separate faucet the applications are truly wide ranging.  You can use it in the kitchen for cooking and washing your fruits and veggies. Or, connect the filter to your wet bar faucet, ice maker, or even your built-in coffee maker to make all your beverages taste their best.  The removal of impurities also helps prevent lime and scale build-up in your drip coffee maker and all other appliances that use water.  Finally, you can enjoy piece of mind in having drinking water that is purified but still retains all natural occurring vitamins and minerals.

Reverse Osmosis: The Definition Of Clean Water

Think of Reverse Osmosis (RO) Systems as the ultimate in eliminating those water impurities that you can’t see like fluoride and other unwanted (or even dangerous) elements.  Though we can all benefit from cleaner water, some households are in need of a “deep” clean to get rid of dangerous impurities like arsenic.  When you absolutely need (or just desire) a thorough filtering process Everpure’s ROM-IV Reverse Osmosis water filtration system is top-level. However, one of the biggest issues people have with water filtered through the Reverse Osmosis process is the fact that RO removes all natural occurring vitamins and minerals.  These vitamins and minerals are not only beneficial to the body but also make water more palatable.  As you can see from the product image to the left, a Reverse Osmosis system also requires a separate faucet and takes up more space than a plumbed-in filter like Everpure’s EF Series. There are truly a lot of factors to condisder. Luckily,  Everpure offers a nice, succinct, comparison of the pros and cons of Reverse Osmosis vs. Carbon Filters. 

A Few Benefits Received From Home Filtered Water

• Cost Savings:
  • The Everpure EF- 6000 can filter the equivalent of 45,443 bottles of water;
  • The Rom-IV Reverse Osmosis system’s bottled water equivalent is 37,850.
  • At a conservative estimate of $6 for a 24 pack of water, each bottle of 17 oz water costs .25¢. Whereas a home filtered equivalent can cost as low as .007¢. Even if you are a heavy user of water and change your filters out 3-4 times a year, you will save a significant amount of money.
• Convenience:
  • You can add a filter throughout your home (kitchen, wet bar, even the bathroom) giving you easy access to clean water.  It also cuts back on the need for repeated trips to the store to replenish your bottled water supply.
• Emergency Readiness:
  • Everyone in Florida knows what it is like as a hurricane approaches.  The first thing to leave the store shelves is bottled water.  Well, with home filtered water you can have a bounty of excellent water for your family, friends and neighbors.
• Piece of Mind:
  • Improving the quality of water you drink improving your overall quality of life.
  • Knowing that you are doing your part in not contributing to the single-use water bottle pollution problem.
  • A recent study showed that 93% of the bottles tested contained some form of micro-plastic contamination (Mason, Welch and Neratko, 2018).
  • So, not only does filtering your own water cut back on plastic waste, it allows you to better control what goes into your body.

Want More Info? We Can Help

There are many other brands involved in the water filtration segment of home appliance products.  Contact Us to learn more on the specifics of the above mentioned filters or any others that you can find in the filtration section of milcarsky.com.

Sources:

Mason, S., Welch, V. and Neratko, J. (2018). SYNTHETIC POLYMER CONTAMINATION IN BOTTLED WATER. [online] Orbmedia.org. Available at: https://orbmedia.org/sites/default/files/FinalBottledWaterReport.pdf [Accessed 5 Aug. 2018].