America's Public Water

EZH2O Retro Kit

Improving U.S. Public Water

The United States has been improving public water systems as well. Purified water bottle fillers are being put into airports, parks, and college campuses. 

Outdoors Bottle Filler

This new Elkay invention called EZH2O not only improves the easy access to clean water, but promotes the reuse of water bottles to reduce the amount of plastic waste. Since the input of this system at Muhlenburg College "1.4 million plastic bottles have been refilled at the stations" over a two year period and "bottled water sales dropped 90%" according to James R. Hagerty in the Wall Street Journal. This Pennsylvania school has significantly reduced the amount of waste produced by students and faculty. 

Photo by Saverio Truglia from the Wall Street Journal

A bottle is filled by the EZ H2O fountain within 7 seconds and shuts off within 20 seconds if a person is not paying attention as a way to reduce the spillage. EZ H2O filters out chlorine and lead from the water for safer drinking. This fountain has been installed in colleges, airports, and parks mostly on the east coast (i.e. Muhlenberg College and Chicago's O'Hare Airport). Recently, I found out Manhattan Beach has a plan to install water bottle filler fountains in the next year or so.  USC should consider investing in EZH20 fountains so we can reduce our plastic waste. The outdoors bottle filler model has a fountain, bottle filler, and even a drinking fountain for pets. This system has proven to be an effective way to eliminate excess waste as well as supply clean water to the public. 

Filtered Water Bottles

A great product produced to filter tap water is the water bottle filter.  Brita, Rubbermaid, and Bobble are popular sellers of these filters.  The product is sold both with a bottle and individually (as replacement filters). Each filter can be reused about 300 times, which means reducing the amount of waste in the environment. The filters are inexpensive, come in a variety of colors, and are recyclable. These are great for travel and exercising because you know you have access to purified water no matter where you are with one of these stylish bottles. 

Why Use a Filtered Bottle over a Plastic Bottle?

Many water bottles are filled with tap water and contain contaminates that can be harmful to our bodies.  Just because water is sold in a store does not necessarily mean it's healthy. Dasani and Aquafina are both just filtered tap water. Therefore, using your own filtered bottle will give you the same water without the dangerous toxins of the plastic bottle. The toxic chemicals in plastic can leak into the water, especially when a bottle is heated (i.e. in a car on a hot day).  These chemicals can cause fatigue and weight gain.  Purchasing water bottles at $1 dollar a piece is much more costly than investing in a filtered bottle which acts as 300 water bottles but only costs about $10-30 dollars with $5 dollar refill filters. Each year over $100 billion dollars is spent producing plastic bottles of water; this is money that could be going toward helping people who don't have access to clean water.  

Reduce Bacteria

If you do drink from the tap, be sure to allow the water to run for a bit before drinking because most likely the water has been sitting in the pipes for a while and could be the home to bacteria.  When drinking from a water fountain do not let your mouth touch the spout. If you don't have access to filtration, boil the water for a minute or add chlorine bleach.  

A person can become ill from swimming in dirty water as well.  When a person is swimming he or she consumes water. There are 100s of deadly bacteria that can make a person ill if he or she has been swimming in a contaminated body of water.  Bacteria can stay on a person's body for a long period of time.  So it is important to bathe after swimming.  One should rinse off his or her body after swimming in oceans or lakes even if they aren't heavily polluted because the water is still a source of many bacteria.  Washing one's hands with soap after using the restroom or playing helps to reduce the chance of spreading bacteria to others.