Water & Air – Filter Systems News

Fans of Vitamin Water may be disappointed to learn that vitamins may lose potency if stored in water for extended periods of time.

Enter Activate – the only brand of bottled water on the market that has vitamins, antioxidants and other supplements in powder form hidden in the cap, which are released with just one twist, just before drinking. How did this concept come to be?

“Friends Anders Eisner and Burke Eiteljorg were sitting in the Denver airport four years ago. Anders was trying to pour Airborne, a supposed cold-fighting dietary supplement, into a bottle of water. Burke was doing the same with Emergen-C, another vitamin drink mix. Both were making a mess. There had to be a tidier way, they decided.”

Activate comes in eight flavors. Some emphasize health and immunity boosters, while others are workout drinks with electrolytes. The drinks contain Stevia, a much healthier alternative to the sugar used in Vitamin Water and other similar beverages. While we applaud the company’s innovation and drive to be healthier than most, we still have the problem of plastic bottle waste on our hands. Perhaps Eisner and Eiteljorg wouldn’t have made such a mess if they had a wide-mouthed reusable bottle like this Klean Kanteen instead. Moreover, the beverage sells for $1.79 to $2.29 per bottle:

“Some balk at the price, but Holland [the company's president] says, ‘If you bought a bottle of water and Emergen-C it would cost you $2.’”

Precisely why we shouldn’t be buying bottles of water in the first place! We’ve said it many times and we’ll say it again. Save money with your own supplement packets and/or pills, and fill up your reusable water bottle with filtered tap water instead.

84 year old, Henry Morello, was found alive in an Arizona desert after five days of being stranded there. He took a wrong turn while driving home from the Phoenix suburb of Cave Creek on Feb. 7, and ended up in a ditch after making a U-turn.

We thought his survival skills were especially good for a man his age, and worth noting. First he ripped a chrome piece off of his car and put it on the roof hoping someone would see the reflection and find him. His phone and car battery went dead, so he used car mats to stay warm and read a car manual from cover to cover to pass the time. But the most interesting part of it all is how he chose to stay hydrated. Since he didn’t have access to water, he filtered windshield wiper fluid through a napkin and drank it as a substitute.

He was found alive by a group of hikers after five days. Though his kidneys are damaged, he arrived at the hospital in good condition, considering all that he had been through. He learned a few lessons from this adventure, the main one being to never drive without water.

We’d like to reach out to Morello and let him know that his story is a lesson to all. Do not leave the house without your reusable stainless steel water bottle, and make sure it’s full of filtered water before taking a trip. And, in case of an emergency, make sure you have some napkins on hand, in case you do need to drink windshield wiper fluid. (We’ll soon be testing out the filtration skills of a napkin, so stay tuned for a video on that.) In the meantime, get prepared for any emergency that may strike, by stocking your survival kit with these items from Filters Fast. Clearly, Morello would have been much better off with a Katadyn Bottle Water Filter.

Part one of this series on “eco-friendly” bottled water introduced you to bioplastics.  We now continue with paper.  Drink up.  And don’t forget to plant a tree when you’re done.

Paper Bottle

Design firm, Brand Image has created the 360 bottle – a disposable water bottle made out of recyclable paper.  With a one-of-a-kind design, this bottle is likely to attract consumers, but is less likely to find its way into a recycling bin after use – making it just as wasteful as recyclable plastic.

h20 :: Natural Spring Water

“Save the planet one drink at a time…” One writer calls this “greenwashed nonsense,” and I might have to agree.  h20 is packaged in a carton that is “mostly paper,” but that contains aluminum, plastic, and other materials that make it very difficult to recycle.  Although its rectangular shape makes transporting more efficient and saves energy, this product still contributes to environmental degradation in ways that filtered tap water in a reusable stainless steel bottle simply wouldn’t.

Boxed Water

Similar to the h20 brand, 76 percent of the Boxed Water container is made from a renewable resource – trees.  Again, because the packages can be flattened and shipped to fillers, transporting Boxed Water is much more efficient than transporting plastic or glass bottles.  But is Boxed Water Really Better? The company claims that it will give ten percent of its profits to world water relief foundations, and another ten percent to reforestation efforts.  These practices have yet to be officially implemented since the inception of the Boxed Water brand in 2008 – but according to the website, they “can’t wait to start giving!”  And, is ten percent really enough to recover all of the losses from the deforestation required by the manufacturing of this product?  Nice try, Boxed Water, but at this point, my vote still goes to the reusable stainless steel container – it’s just as convenient, less costly, and less wasteful.

Last week, we did a blog post on celebrities for bottled water.  You didn’t just think we’d leave you hanging without presenting the other side of the equation, did you?  The celebrities for bottled water endorse the commodity by giving it a sexy image.  It appears that those against bottled water bring a little more to the table than a sexy appearance.  Whose side are you on?

Oprah Winfrey

One of the most followed and admired television faces in America added the environment to her list of favorite things over a year ago.  Along with reusable grocery bags and Seventh Generation cleaning products, Oprah has switched to reusable water bottles to reduce plastic bottle waste.

Adam Yauch

Former Beastie Boys rapper, Adam Yauch, calls out Nestle, Pepsi and Coca-Cola in his award-winning documentary film Flow: For Love of Water. The movie bashes bottled water companies for their “privatization of the world’s dwindling fresh-water supply.”  See our list of must-watch water movies for more information on Flow along with other, similar films.

Dave Matthews Band, Ben Harper and Relentless 7

This year, Dave Matthews Band, Ben Harper and Relentless 7 are all teaming up with Brita, Nalgene and the Filter for Good campaign to rid their summer tours of plastic water bottles.  At each concert, refilling stations will be set up where fans can obtain and refill free, reusable water bottles.  These stations will also supply further information on ways to conserve and protect the planet.  Brita’s Filter for Good channel, featuring DMB and other similar artists, is available on Pandora.  I think it’s safe to assume that when Dave wrote “Don’t Drink the Water,” he must have been talking about the bottled kind.

Kelly Osbourne

Feeling guilty about sipping bottled spring water, earlier this year daughter of rock star Ozzy Osbourne, Kelly Osbourne, pledged to go green by giving up bottled water, in order to help the environment.

Gisele Bundchen

Brazilian supermodel, Gisele Bundchen has been spotted several times with a SIGG reusable water bottle.  Though it’s uncertain whether she does so in an effort to preserve the environment, it is questionable, considering her marriage to Tom Brady who is actively involved in the Smart Water ad campaigns.

Cindy Crawford

Clearly bottled water companies aren’t the only ones who realize that sexy sells.  Two years ago, PUR Water Filtration partnered with supermodel Cindy Crawford to promote the use of filtered water over bottled.

Garrison Keillor

TreeHugger cites a quote from Garrison Keillor on the wastefulness of bottled water, from a 2007 article in the Salt Lake Tribune.  This Minnesota public radio show host turned his back on bottled water once he realized that tap is just as good or better.  We advocate filtered tap, of course.