How Water Filters Benefit the Environment
A huge part of living a happier and healthier life is protecting the natural environment. For many of us, that means adopting sustainable habits, like using energy-efficient light bulbs and appliances, recycling plastic waste, or even filtering our drinking water. Yes, you heard it right; installing a water filter in your home is an easy and impactful way to help preserve our precious planet.
Over the past few decades, bottled water has become one of the most common ways Americans access clean water. After all, it is highly convenient and offers on-the-go hydration, increasing water consumption among the population. However, alongside those remarkable benefits is a massive trade-off: the discarded plastic bottles wreaking havoc on the environment.
Bottled water production produces about 300 million tons of plastic bottle waste every year, most of which don’t make it to a recycling facility or landfill. Usually, they end up as litter in our natural environment, where they can remain for up to 450 years before they decompose. Then again, studies suggest that plastic doesn’t biodegrade. Instead, it breaks down into other forms, like smaller fragments called “microplastics,” known to pollute water and impact human health when ingested.
So, how do water filters help prevent plastic pollution and other planet-threatening events? We’re happy you asked! Continue reading as we explore the benefits of using a water filter to help protect the environment.
First off, what is a water filter, and how does it work?
Water is amazingly good at dissolving things (thanks mainly to its unusual molecular structure.) Because of this, we may find that our drinking water sometimes contains all sorts of unpleasant materials we certainly don’t want inside our bodies.
Fortunately, a water filter is designed to remove these unwanted contaminants and impurities, thus producing fresher, cleaner, and safer water. Generally, a water filter system uses a physical or chemical process, or a combination of the two, to filter out toxic chemicals, heavy metals, biological contaminants, and other harmful pollutants from water.
Physical water filtration involves straining the water through a gauze-like membrane to block or trap sediments, such as sand, dirt, and grit. Think of it like a screen door blocking insects and dirt from entering a home. In chemical filtration, the water passes through an active material that removes impurities chemically as they pass through.
OK, so how do water filters benefit the environment?
There’s no doubt that discarded plastic water bottles are a menace to the environment. Yes, we could find effective ways to reuse or recycle them to minimize their impact, but reducing them in the first place is the best way to protect the environment because it prevents plastic waste before it occurs.
Luckily, water filters can help us reduce single-use items, like plastic bottles, decrease fossil fuel consumption, and lessen the wear and tear on appliances. Let’s discuss these benefits in more detail.
1. Water Filters Help Reduce Single-Use Plastic Water Bottle Consumption
Plastic water bottles are a convenient way to access clean drinking water, whether at home or on the go. However, when they’re discarded into the environment, they can do a lot of damage to our green spaces, waterways, animals, aquatic creatures, and even our health. And as we mentioned earlier, plastic does not decompose. It sometimes breaks down into toxic microplastic particles that can be difficult to track and can easily invade our water and food.
The good news is that if you are interested in cutting down plastic waste in the environment, a water filter is one of the most accessible, affordable, and practical tools for the job. Because water filters can provide easy access to fresh, clean, high-quality drinking water, they can reduce or eliminate single-use plastic water bottles. Better yet, combine a water filtration system, like a whole house system, under-sink filter, or countertop filter, with a reusable water bottle, and you’ll have access to clean, great-tasting water everywhere in your home and when you’re out and about. Ideally, you should ensure your reusable water bottle is made of metal or glass to reduce plastic waste further.
2. Water Filters Protect Appliances
In addition to reducing single-use water plastic bottles in the environment, water filters provide other long-term benefits like extending the lifespan of your appliances. Yes, some water filters have sediment filters that eliminate dirt, dust, sand, and other particulate matter that would otherwise damage or slow down water-using appliances, like water heaters, refrigerators, washing machines, and dishwashers.
Sediment buildup and corrosive metals and chemicals from unfiltered water can damage appliances and skyrocket their energy consumption. However, using a water filter can significantly reduce these buildups, thus prolonging the lifespan of your home appliances and helping them remain energy efficient for longer.
For example, if you have an electric water heater, sediments possibly in your water can build up in the heater. Over time, the deposits can settle at the bottom of the tank and cover the lower heating element, reducing the hot water tank’s efficiency. As a result, you’ll find that the water heater requires more electricity to heat the water because the lower heating element isn’t working correctly. Thankfully, a water filter can prevent sediment buildup, which can help reduce energy consumption and save you from higher electricity bills.
Protecting your appliances, especially with a water filter, can save you money and time and help the environment by reducing pollution from excess energy generation.
3. Water Filters Reduce Fossil Fuel Consumption
Plastic water bottles are made from fossil fuels and natural gas, a process that requires 17 million barrels of oil every year – not including transportation. Further, the bottling process releases 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year.
That means, by using an eco-friendly water filter, we can reduce the amount of plastic we need to produce and rely less on fossil fuels. The less plastic we make, the more we can help alleviate our carbon footprint, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and lessen the harmful chemical and gas byproducts that come from the plastic manufacturing process.
How to Choose an Eco-Friendly Water Filter for Your Home
If you decide to invest in a water filter to commence or continue your planet-saving efforts, you’ll need to ensure you have the correct type of filter system for the job. Now, not all water filters are created equal. So, which filter system should you choose? Let’s break down the different water filtration systems to help you decide which is best for you.
Whole-House Water Filters
Whole-house water filters (aka point-of-entry (POE) systems) remove harmful contaminants and impurities in the water from every faucet in your home for cleaner water for drinking, cooking, doing the dishes and laundry, showering, and more. Since POE filters, like the Springwell CF1 whole house water filter system, reduce up to 99.9 percent of chlorine, lead, pesticides, and other contaminants, your water will taste and smell better. You can also take your whole-house system one step further by adding a sediment filter to remove large particles and particulate matter, a UV filter to eliminate up to 99.9 percent of bacteria and viruses, and a water softener to combat hard water. Perhaps the biggest downside to this type of filter is its upfront cost (although you’ll end up spending less over time as opposed to buying bottled water), and you cannot bring it around with you (quick fix: you can still fill up a reusable water bottle for when you’re away from home).
Under-Sink Water Filters
Another fantastic option for getting clean drinking water in your home is with an under-sink water filter. If you only want to filter the water at a single faucet, say, your kitchen faucet, an under-sink water filter is an excellent fit. Under-sink filters are a great alternative to whole-house filters because they are easier to install, portable, and usually less expensive. For example, our SWRO reverse osmosis under-sink filters fit comfortably even under small, compact sinks. They are also perfect for filtering heavy metals, such as lead, fluoride, arsenic, chlorine, chloramines, and other unwanted toxic contaminants in water. Both of our SWRO models are designed for easy do-it-yourself installation and can connect directly to your cold-water line.
Countertop Water Filters
Countertop water filters provide an easy way to get great-tasting, healthy water with minimal or no installation. While they don’t provide water for the entire home, like a whole house filter, they offer the same clean, fresh water to a single faucet – without requiring a permanent fixture. That means quicker and easier installation. Water pitchers are a popular type of countertop filter. These devices use gravity to trickle water through filters, while other countertop filters use electricity to provide clean water instantly.
The Best Water Filter for Your Home
Choosing the best type and model water filter for your home will depend on a few factors, such as your water source, filtration requirement, the specific contaminants plaguing your water supply, if any, your budget, etc. You can check out our article, The Best Water Filtration Systems for Your Home, which explains everything you need to make an informed decision. Or you can contact us if you have any questions about water filtration or need help finding the ideal system.
Springwell offers some of the most high-quality and eco-friendly water filter systems on the market, from whole-house water filters and under-sink systems to sediment and UV filters. Our water filter systems are highly efficient, reliable, and affordable. Plus, when you purchase directly from us, you get a lifetime warranty, a six-month money-back guarantee, free shipping, affordable financing, and more than 50 percent in factory-direct savings!
Final Thoughts
We all have a responsibility to protect our planet – for our livelihoods and those of our future generations. Eco-friendly practices, waste reduction, and water preservation will all play a crucial role. A great place to start is investing in a home water filter to improve our health, well-being, and precious environment.
If you’re ready to invest in an eco-friendly water filter to help protect the environment, we invite you to shop our products and find the perfect water filter solution for your needs today!