Water & Air – Filter Systems News

You may recall a series we did last year on “eco-friendly” bottled water. It appears that PepsiCo and Evian have both jumped on that bandwagon. Evian has introduced a lighter-weight bottle, made with 50 percent recycled PET, and containing 11 percent plastic, that is still 100 percent recyclable. We know that’s a lot of percentages, so let us break it down for you this way: Evian is trying to be more evnironmentally sustainable with their bottled water packaging. The bottle is even easier to crush, as demonstrated by their TV commercial, which means it takes up less space in your recycle bin or trash can  (leaving room for more bottles – amounting to just as much plastic as you’d get with their former bottle design.)

Evian’s bottle came out a week after PepsiCo announced plans to release the first-ever PET bottle made from 100 percent plant materials, including switch grass, pine bark and corn husks. The bottle is also fully recyclable.

While we commend the bottled water industry for their efforts to appeal to a broader audience of people, we stand by our original claim, which is also the claim of most environmentalists who just aren’t “buying it” (pun intended.) Whether the bottle is recyclable or not, the fact remains that most bottles are not actually recycled. And whether it’s packaged in plastic or corn husks, many bottled waters are nothing more than filtered tap water, which you can get at home for a fraction of the price. Pepsi has even admitted that their Aquafina water is municipally sourced. In short, as a recent guest star in our youtube film, “Bottled Water Dummy,” demonstrates, bottled water is a waste of money.  We all know what EVIAN spells backwards…

We suggest you invest in water filters, which are a much more sustainable and cost-effective solution.

Ladies, you can ditch the platinum and the silver; it appears that gold is making a comeback. And not just in the jewelry you wear, but in the water you drink.

A few days ago we did a post on lithium in tap water and its link to prolonged life in roundworms and in humans. In conjunction with this discovery, we posed the question, “what if the fountain of youth came out of your tap?” (We were joking, of course.) Since then, we’ve learned that there is water – supposedly sourced from natural springs and processed through layers of rock formed over 200 million years ago, located in Nova Scotia – that was actually praised as a fountain of youth and healing spring, 500 years ago.

What’s more: a Canadian company has stepped forward, claiming to have filtered this water through gold. Their special gold-filtering process results in a deluxe mineral water, with a discernible flavor, that contains calcium, magnesium, sodium, chlorine, hydrocarbonates, sulphates, silica and total dissolved solids in various quantities. The company is planning to make this water a new line of bottled water, called Gize – the only golden mineral water in the world. They will not release the details of the size or purity of the gold filter, which can produce 11,000 liters of water an hour. Small bottles (200 mL) will be sold for 5 Euro, approximately $7 USD, and large bottles (750 mL) will be sold for 15 Euro, or nearly $21 USD. Given that the water probably contains a few tiny gold particles, it’s surprising that it wouldn’t sell for more. The company is expecting it to get good demand from luxury spas and hotels.

Would you buy gold-filtered bottled water?

We don’t like to be the bearer of bad news, but it seems that water filtration advocates around the world are going to be disappointed today, because according to several news sources, bottled water sales saw a 4.2 percent increase this last year.

And, you may want to sit down for this next part…

Sales are expected to jump another 3 percent in 2011.

But don’t lose hope. Don’t let this news discourage you. You can make a difference. You can help us put an end to this madness.

It’s very simple: spread the word. Tell your friends the truth about bottled water. For example:

1. Bottled water manufacturers use clever marketing tactics to fool consumers into believing that their product is the absolute best, and most convenient way to obtain pure water that is safe to drink.
2. Bottled water is bad for the environment. Millions of non-biodegradable plastic bottles go unrecycled each year.
3. Bottled water is very expensive, and is really nothing more than filtered tap water that you could easily get from home, at a fraction of the cost, with a quality water filter.
4. Bottling companies like Fiji are taking good water away from the poor people in Fiji who really need it, and are shipping it long distances and selling it to Americans at ridiculous prices.
5. Bottled water won’t necessarily protect you from hexavalent chromium contamination… a little known fact that may have contributed to the 2010 spike in sales. The Environmental Working Group recently discovered this contaminant in water supplies in 31 cities across the U.S., and they recommend a good quality water filter over bottled water as a solution. In addition, the EWG recently published a bottled water scorecard, giving filtered tap water the highest score available.
6. Yes, many bottled waters do not contain fluoride, but you can get water that is fluoride-free right out of your tap by simply installing a reverse osmosis filter. Many RO filters also reduce chromium-vi, and in the long run, will save you lots of money.
7. The bottled water brand name “Evian” spells “Naive” backwards…

These seven facts may be summed up in seven words: Friends don’t let friends drink bottled water. (Okay, so maybe it’s cliche, but you get the point.) I’m guessing that you probably have a lot of friends – virtual or otherwise – and social media is one of the best ways for you to help spread the word so that your friends are not labeled among the “naive” consumers. What’s more: we’ve made it really easy for you to do so; simply hit the “tweet” and “like” buttons at the top of this post. And if you’d like to spread the word on other social networks, you can do so by clicking the buttons below this post as well. Every share counts!

We’d also like to thank all of our friends who have thus far supported our efforts to provide everyone with affordable access to clean water straight from the tap!

The University of Canberra is the first Australian university to ban the sale of bottled water on its campus, according to a blog post by Stephen Parker, the school’s vice chancellor. The school plans to stop selling bottled water on campus by World Water Day, which is March 22 of this year.

Many schools in the United States and Canada have undertaken similar bottled water bans, and even more schools have considered such a ban. Of course, if a university or college bans bottled water, they should make sure that they have a plan in place to provide clean water to students.

The University of Canberra did that and then some.

The university has installed water bubblers and water refill stations throughout the campus so that its students have access to clean, filtered water. And, unlike bottled water, this water doesn’t cost students a thing.

But the University of Canberra didn’t stop there. They also had Water Vend machines installed. These machines provide “flash-chilled” filtered tap water, which students may have still, sparkling or even flavored. Sigg also supplied the school with reusable water bottles.

If your campus is considering a bottled water ban, you would do well to take a page out of the University of Canberra’s book. There is no point in even considering a ban on bottled water if you don’t have a clear alternative, as the University of Canberra clearly did.

IMAGE CREDIT: dcwater.com

Congress spent $190,000 on bottled water during the first quarter of 2010 alone. As of this writing, many members of Congress were reticent to drink DC’s tap water after past studies showed the tap water contained unsafe levels of lead. Over the years, DC tap water has received quite the bad reputation.

DC Water is working to change that. As Tap It Water reports, George S. Hawkins, general manager of the area water utility DC Water, wrote a letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner urging him to cut bottled water from the budget. As an incentive, Hawkins offered to supply each member of Congress with free reusable water bottles. He also offered free water quality testing in congressional buildings, “including taps and water fountains.”

There are more than hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake here. After all, if Congress refuses to take DC Water up on their offer, how can they expect DC residents to drink the city’s tap water? Congress would essentially be acknowledging that DC tap water is unsafe, and that they were quite okay with spending more money to ignore the problem rather than fix it outright.

Here’s a novel idea: Rather than spending $190,000 on bottled water each quarter (which amounts to $760,000 a year), why doesn’t Congress invest more money into DC Water, thereby eliminating the need for bottled water in the first place and giving DC residents safe water in their own homes?

Please note we’re not saying that DC Water needs to even take extra precautions. It seems water quality in DC is on the up-and-up. In a blind taste test, DC tap water was preferred over bottled water. DC Water has also set up new facilities around town, and they’ve become more transparent.  DC Water’s FAQ page addresses and answers concerns about various contaminants.

Last year, we wrote about how a small church used bottled water for Baptism, and then shortly after that we wrote about a South Korean professor who was charged with fraud for selling machines he claimed could turn tap water into holy water.

Just last week, an Orthodox priest, Zaharia Peres, claimed to do the same. Only this time, the priest had no ulterior motive for turning tap water into holy water. And he didn’t need a machine.

Instead, Peres consecrated all of Timisoara’s tap water at once. He stood over the reservoirs that supplied the city so that everyone in the city might have access to the holy water. Many opted to go directly to the church to get their fill of holy water, fearing that the water might lose some of its power by travelling through rusty pipes.

Why does bottled water have an expiration date? This is a question we see asked all the time.  Many resources state that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) require any food or consumable product to have an expiration date, but this is not true in the case of bottled water. It turns out, the FDA does not require an expiration date for bottled water.

But just because the FDA doesn’t require bottled water to have an expiration date, that doesn’t mean you should pop open that 1996 FIJI you’ve been saving for a special occasion. Such long-term storage, the FDA states, can lead to undesirable tastes and odors in the water. Given this, it’s not uncommon to see most bottled waters have a best by or a use by date.

Expired bottled water isn’t going to get any better with age. If you leave that bottle of water on the shelf for too long, you may end up with more than off-tastes or off-flavors to be concerned with. This is because most bottled water manufacturers use a high-density polyethylene plastic (HDPE), which is slightly porous. The bottle’s porousness can allow airborne contaminants to enter the water, just as some chemicals from the plastic itself can leach into the bottle. Thankfully, most bottled water companies are no longer using plastic with Bisphenol A, but the jury is still out on the other dangers of chemicals leaching from HDPE.

In just the first quarter of last year, the House spent a whopping $190,000 on bottled water ($120,000 of that went to Deer Park water). John Boehner, the new house speaker, says he will move to cut budgets by 5 percent starting tomorrow. Will the bottled water budget be included in these cuts?

Bradford Fitch, the CEO of the Congressional Management Foundation, maintains that the House’s consumption of bottled water is not a luxury, but a necessity due to “D.C. tap water’s reputation.”

Washington, D.C.’s tap water reputation was certainly sullied when it was discovered that the tap water contained unsafe levels of lead.

But DC tap water has come a long way in the last few years. In a blind taste test, DC tap water was preferred over bottled water. DC Water has also set up new facilities around town, and they’ve become more transparent.  DC Water’s FAQ page addresses and answers concerns about various contaminants. It specifically details what DC water is doing to ensure lead doesn’t enter into home tap water.

Is all of this enough to convince the House to scale back on their bottled water consumption? Should it be? And what does it say about Congress if they’re content to let DC residents drink tap water that they themselves will not drink or attempt to fix?

Federal spending has gone up more than 20 percent since Obama took office, according to a recent report. Many would say the spending was necessary to recover our recessed economy, but a quick glance at some of the costs implemented to keep the government running reveals that this is questionable.

Millions of dollars have gone toward funding for Nancy Pelosi’s office, printing “important” documents like the new Obamacare health care plan, student loan repayments (a benefit of working for the government), pension costs for retired congressional members, office supplies, electricity, food and tap water.

But it would be silly to think that affluent members of Congress would dare drink plain old tap water, wouldn’t it? Reports indicate that House members alone spent nearly $200,000 on bottled water during the first quarter of 2010.

I guess someone forgot to tell our political leaders about water filtration. Maybe our economy wouldn’t be in such shambles if they weren’t wasting money on pointless commodities like bottled water. Not to mention, there are so many people in undeveloped nations who don’t have access to clean water.

Nov. 2 is tomorrow, folks. Do your research and make sure to vote green in the 2010 elections.

Queen Latifah’s latest business venture just might be as worthless as deciding to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in real estate right now…

Bottled water? And in New York City, no less – a city that has some of the best-tasting tap water in the country.

That’s right, folks. Queen Latifah has entered the bottled water business as an investor in New York Spring Water, in conjunction with the Flavor Unit Entertainment Group, which manages her film and television projects. The plan is to use her film and TV career to market the New York City bottled water brands – Aqua84 mineral water, VBlast Vitamin Water and VBee Vitamin water for kids. (Watch out, Ellen DeGeneres!) These brands were set to hit 7-11 stores in mid-October.

I guess when you have the fame and fortune of celebrities like Queen Latifah, one bad investment is no worse than losing a few pennies to your money-hungry sofa cushions.