Bottled water is evil!  I don’t need to tell you why, but I will rant.  If you are convinced it is safer than your tap water, you are fooled by major corporations like Nestle, whom I hope you boycott for their infant formula policies.

Most bottled water is simply filtered tap water, unless specifically stating it is spring water.  Either way, sitting for weeks or months in plastic water bottles leaching who knows what chemicals is not good for your health, let alone what the bottles, whether recycled or not, do to our environment.  And don’t get me started on what the water bottling plants do to local aquifers…

Unless you live near Rocky Flats in Colorado, or other such toxic places, the best thing you can do for your family and the environment is to install a water filter in your home.  Hydration is key to health, and water is the best beverage for our bodies. If you are simply looking at dollars and cents, a home water filter system will save money in the long run over frequent buying of those little plastic bottles of water.

We were sent a water filter by Aquasana to try. The Aquasana AQ-4601 Premium Under Counter Water Filter System is beautiful and effective:

Remove pollutants, maintain healthy minerals.The Aquasana premium under counter water filter uses the same drinking filter that won Health Magazine’s Healthiest Product award for 2010. You get Aquasana’s unbeatable drinking water filtration technology in a discreet package that blends effortlessly into your kitchen. With a quick and easy product installation (no plumber necessary), you can enjoy the convenience of always-available filtered water from a dedicated faucet in your sink. And with three beautiful faucet options to choose from, it’s easy to match your unique kitchen aesthetic. Water under pressure means better filtration.Our unique twin cartridge system uses a combination of carbon filtration, ion exchange and sub-micron filtration. Your tap water is forced under pressure over filtration material covering more than two million square feet of surface area, so it removes over three times more contaminants than leading pitcher filters. The Aquasana water filtration system is uniquely designed to remove pollutants, reduce odor, and improve taste while preserving healthy minerals for optimum hydration. Certified contaminant reduction 97.4-Percent of Chlorine, Free Available 99.9-Percent of Particulate 99.9-Percent of Cyst Live Cryptosporidium and Giardia 96.6-Percent of Mercury 99.3-Percent of Lead 81.8-Percent of Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) 99.0-Percent of Turbidity 99.4-Percent of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) by Surrogate 99.0-Percent of Asbestos For a complete list of contaminants reduced, see the Aquasana AQ-4601 Performance Data Sheet. System tested and certified by NSF International against NSF/ANSI Standard 42 and 53 for the reduction claims specified on the Performance Data Sheet.

That’s way better than the current water filter system we have in place.  According to Aquasana,

Bottled water has become a multi-billion-dollar business. It’s now the fastest growing segment of the entire beverage industry and the most profitable of all beverages.

It is also one of the biggest polluting industries in the U.S. Over 60,000,000 plastic bottles are produced, transported and disposed of EVERY DAY in the U.S. alone! San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Chicago, and many more have recently jumped on the “ban bottled water” wagon making it illegal to spend city dollars on bottled water due to its very harmful environmental impact. Chicago has recently implemented a 5 cent per bottle tax to discourage use by consumers.

The realization that bottled water is seldom of higher quality than tap water has caused a major shift in public opinion. “It causes millions of plastic bottles to be manufactured, transported and then disposed of in U.S. landfills, it’s killing our planet, and for no good reason…” Eric Olsen, Natural Resources Defense Council.

Billions of dollars are spent on advertising campaigns to give consumers the perception that bottled water comes from pristine mountain springs or pure underground aquifers. The truth is that bottled water is often little more than tap water in a bottle.

THERE ARE NO GOVERNMENT STANDARDS THAT REQUIRE BOTTLED WATER TO BE ANY BETTER, PURER OR SAFER THAN TAP WATER.

disclosure: The products described above were sent to us as free samples. Prior assurances as to the nature of the reviews, whether positive or negative, were not given. No financial payments were accepted in exchange for the reviews. The reviews reflect our honest, authentic opinions.