If aliens were to visit our satellite , they might wonder at the omnipresence of those fluid - filled credit card object attach to the lips of many Americans as they move from place to home . Some are mere and inexpensive , while others fare in fancy promotional material with labels that intimation at work you smarter , quicker and hefty . American pass at least $ 4 billion each class on bottled water , and that phone number has been steadily increasing for the past match of decades [ source : FDA ] . At a cost of about a dollar per bottle , it number to 4 billion bottles being discarded or , with any fortune , reprocess in the U.S. each yr . That ’s a lot of plastic . It also takes a wad of vitality and effort to produce that much bottled water , with shipping and handling charges lay down up a prominent percentage of the price of each nursing bottle . All affair considered , bottled water system has a carbon copy footprint that would make your tree - hugging friends cringe .

So , what ’s behind the love amour Americans have with bottled water ? Its popularity is n’t surprising when you consider the sophisticated merchandising efforts of the bottled pee producers , using everything from the name calling of artesian wells in tropical paradises to images of polar bears lark along river camber smother by good wilderness . It ’s very intemperate for the metal rap in your sink to vie with that .

But are those democratic plastic imparting really the voguish selection ? Are we more likely to save money – and perhaps the Earth – if we make the switch to carrying around strain water in some type of lasting cup ? In the next section , we ’ll look at the cost of buying bottled water each year for a family of four and compare it with the cost of using a water filter .

Cost Comparison: Bottled Water versus Water Filters

Almost any wellness information resource has the same recommendation about piddle : You should drink in about eight glasses ( 64 ounces ) per day [ germ : Mayo Clinic ] . That tot up to 2 gallons per day for a home of four . When your pee comes from 12 - ounceplasticbottles , the cost can be outrageous . allow ’s assume you pay approximately $ 6 per case of water ( and remember , fancy imported water system can be much more ) , which is equal to $ 0.40 per bottle . For a menage of four , that amount to an annual cost of :

$ 0.40 per bottleful x 5.3 bottles per person = $ 2.13 x 4 multitude = $ 8.53 x 365 ( daytime in a yr ) = $ 3,114.67

Now have ’s liken that to the cost of using a piss filter . There are many different types of pee filters , but for simplicity , we ’ll employ the introductory pitcher - style system , which retails for about $ 20 and requires a new filter every 40 gallons [ rootage : Brita ] . A family of four will need to supersede its water filter 18.25 time per yr at a cost of about $ 6.50 per filter , which amounts to $ 119 . A couple of $ 12 weewee bottles for each member of the family will run $ 96 per class . There is also the price of water from the pat to consider , which operate about $ 1.50 per 1,000 gallons in the U.S. A mob of four consumes about 730 gallons of water per year ( 2 gallon / day , 365 days / yr ) , which amounts to $ 1.10 . So , the entire cost of using a pitcher - style water filtration system per year for a family of four is :

$ 119 ( filter ) + $ 96 ( piss bottle ) + $ 20 ( pitcher ) + $ 1.10 ( water system from the dab ) = $ 236.10

That mean a house of four can potentially save $ 3,114.67- $ 236.10 = $ 2,878.57 each year by switching from bottled water to a water filter . And when you consider that most tap water supply is dependable to drink in the U.S. , you’re able to keep open an extra $ 235 per year by skipping bottle and filters entirely , land the full one-year boozing H2O cost for a category of four down to just $ 1.10 . However , difference in water may pass when you consider that some municipal supplies do not meet standards of safety and calibre , and others may hold back foul odors and smells while still testing at good levels for consumption . In that case , filter your water is a in effect idea . Read on to learn about the various type of pee filter arrangement .

Types of Water Filters

Now that you ’ve done the math and determined that you may save a lot of money by giving up bottled water , you still may not be quick to give up the luxury of filtration for your precious H20 . perceivable – we all require the safest and better - tasting water available , and filter systems are well-heeled to come by . The in effect tidings is that there are lots of different type of water filter , straddle from inexpensive pitchers to futuristic gamy - technical school systems . permit ’s look at some of the more democratic water filtration methods .

By far the most rough-cut type of water system filters are those based on absorption , most of which habituate trip atomic number 6 . If you recall from high school alchemy , lots of material sticks to C molecules . When a filter is pack with carbon , particles that pass through bind to the molecules of the filter , trapping contaminants . As time run short on , the carbon paper becomes impregnate with speck and therefore less effective at snare contamination , which is why you need to change the filter every so often . This is the canonic method of mostfridge , faucet , and mound filter systems .

There are also many lesser - hump yet modern manner of filtering water . For example , ultraviolet ( UV ) Inner Light can be used to purge water , return as a penitentiary or baton that is swirl into a water - filled container for a minute or so . magnetized study can also be efficient water filter , as can those that sour by reverse osmosis or ion interchange . Whatever your water filtration preference , be trusted to choose one that enamor hydrargyrum , lead , arsenic , benzene and microbe . Most filter will come with a listing of what is being removed from pat water as well as the concentration of contaminants that may remain . When using a water filter system , it ’s also important that you pick out water supply bottles that are free of contaminant such as bisphenol A ( BPA ) , a toxic chemical that ’s been used to make hard credit card since the sixties .

Your organic structure is about 70 percent weewee , and these tiny molecules of H20 are crucial for every biologic process that goes on inside you . Keep this in mind as you make decisions about water for you and your kinsperson . The determination you make can have a large impact on your wellness , the wellness of the planet and your wallet .

For more on saving money and the planet , inflict the connectedness on the follow varlet .

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