Back To The Tap: Three Ways To Get Fancy Water, And Skip The Plastic Bottle
by April Streeter, Gothenburg, Sweden 
on 09. 1.08
Photo joshme17 @ flickr
The problem of one-use plastic bottles has far from gone away - we're still chucking out 30 billion empties globally each year. At least a six-pack of different U.S. and Canadian cities has come up with some kind of bottled water restrictions, hooray. But how to quench our collective thirst - have you noticed how few and far between once-common water fountains have become? Some solutions are cropping up, however, at least giving restaurants and offices a way to supply tap and sparkling water for guests and employees.
Filtered, carbonated, and (so far) free
Natura Water system is installed in more than a dozen restaurants and hotel eateries (such as Chez Panisse) in L.A., San Francisco, Miami and now Chicago - and so far, these places are serving it without charging patrons. The Natura system is an on-site filter system that takes local tap water and passes it through carbon to remove dirt, rust, chlorine, and other impurities, and then through a disinfection chamber to kill 99% of microorganisms and germs - then chills it and carbonates if desired. Natura isn't practical for home use - the shiny, espresso-like dispensing machines run into the thousands of dollars, making a glass pitcher in the fridge a much better alternative (though only for still). Natura says it would like to get into the home market, and one Swedish company already has - hit the jump for more.
Then there's the Sparkling Water, Powered by AGA concept - a sink-top faucet that lets you use tap water and carbonate it on the spot. AGA is an industrial gases company, so they know their CO2 (also originally the company that invented the AGA stove beloved in the U.K.). The cheapest model of the Sparkling Water faucet currently goes for around U.S.$500 - that's a lot of pennies, but factoring in all the fossil fuels and/or human labor that goes into getting enough bottled water for a family of four, and well, you might get close to recouping your costs in a year.
And finally, the SodaStream, a product that had its first heyday in the 80s, along with slush-makers and shave-ice machines. SodaStream claims ten million households use the counter-top appliance to carbonate their water or create homemade sodas. Normally, we'd eschew the SodaStream, as the regular models use a plastic bottle. But the $199.99 Penguin kit is fairly attractive (made in Israel), and comes with two glass carafes for holding your sparkling water. The company is also working on essences to flavor the water instead of sweetened soda flavors. Now if there was just a way for us to somehow pipe in excess CO2 from coal-fired plants to our Penguin, all would truly be better in the world.
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Normally, we'd eschew the SodaStream, as the regular models use a plastic bottle.
We have a SodaStream, and the thing to note is that even the models that use plastic bottles are better than you think. The bottles are reusable, and are of a thicker plastic than your average water bottle. We've been using our bottles for about 2 years now, and we've only had one bottle break (it fell off a speeding bicycle).
SodaStream suggests replacing the bottles every few years, as the bottles eventually weaken from the pressure of the carbonation process. When it is time to retire a bottle, they are made of #5 plastic, so assuming your municipality can handle you can recycle it.
In addition to the reuse of the water bottles, SodaStream also has an exchange program for the CO2 cylinder. They do a courier exchange, bringing you a new cylinder and taking the empty... We have 3 cylinders so we are never left without, but a single cylinder makes us about 100 liters of sparkling water.
If I sound like a fanboy, I guess it's because I've become one. My partner doesn't like drinking flat water, so we were buying her 10+ liters of Poland Spring sparkling water every week. Thinking back to all that wasted plastic, not to mention all the money wasted on that expensive water, is troubling...
-------author replies---------
Wow - if you are using the plastic bottles that long, and you had someone in the family with a 10-liter a week habit, yeah, it's definitely a good investment. Are you not to worried about leaching from the plastic?
What about simple filters, like a Brita? Doesn't do sparkling of course, but seems like a more effecient option for filtering the nasties out of tap water, unless it's not as effective?
-------author replies --------
Brita is great, but I was trying to find some options that don't use plastic to hold or store the water.
I'm assuming you mean 30 billion, because 30 millions makes no sense.
I have sodastream (formerly soda club), and the amount of plastic my family is saving is remarkable.
Though this water is not for drinking, my brother-in-law has to use a C-PAP machine for sleep apnea and it uses distilled water for humidity. They buy in plastic bottles, and one day when cleaning the bedroom my sister counted 26 plastic gallon bottles. There must be a greener way. Would a reverse-osmosis system work?
------author replies ------
I believe so, but the manufacturer could probably say for sure.
Hi,
As said as in this blog, you need keep in mind that tap water is one of the best regulated beverages you can think of. So why do you need to spend a lot of money for these gadgets and for not making it better.
Eddy
----author replies ------
Eddy, while you are right in principle, not all regions have done their utmost to clean up their tap water, and many people have gotten into the habit or the necessity of drinking bottled water - so we really need options to get the convenience (and possibly better taste/or bubbles) with environmental considerations.
We use Soda Club (now Soda Stream) and quite like it. We figure it saved us about 35 cases of bottled sparkling water a year. It is cheap and the bottles, although plastic, aren't "bad plastic."
I know it's been months, but I just wanted to send a note to say that we just ordered two new replacement bottles and there was a note inside each of the bottles with the BPA free logo.
I have found my Back To The Tap bottle which filters as you drink the best solution ever! Each Filter is good for 80 gallons and they are very affordable. The long-lasting non toxic Sports bottle has a great grip and the carbon filter makes any tap water taste like its supposed to when chemicals are not present. That means it has a clear clean taste that is just thirst-quenching - instead of the tinny taste of chemicals present in disposable water bottles