It is not a secret that plastic water bottles are bad for the environment. More than 100 million plastic bottles are used in the United States every day, and only one out of five of those plastic bottles is recycled. It can take 700 years for a plastic bottle to start decomposing. It takes 3 liters of water to produce one liter of water, and more than 17 million barrels of oil are used annually to produce America’s demand for bottled water.

Clean water is not always easy to come by. Even in places where it is assumed that the water is clean, like the United States, the water isn’t as clean as you think. Forty-five percent of U.S. streams, 47 percent of lakes and 32 percent of bays are polluted. A study done by Harvard in 2016 proved that there were dangerous levels of polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances, chemicals that have been linked to cancer and other health problems, in over six million Americans’ drinking water. Google Flint, Michigan water crisis and you will know that American water is not a safe as it seems.

Diercon mini water purifier straw (wikicommons)

Obviously, it is easy to fix the dependency on plastic water bottles by purchasing a reusable water bottle and drinking tap water. But what seems difficult is purifying the water. For a long time as a kid I thought that the only way to make sure that water is completely clean is to boil it and let it cool; then it is ready to drink. But it’s actually not complicated. Portable water filters are popular devices that upgrade the quality of your water wherever you go.

There are many different kinds of portable water filters. Straw water filters are useful for hiking or emergency water situations. To use a straw water filter, the user puts the end of the water filter in the water source (like a tap in your bathroom or a stream you come across while hiking), suck the water through the filter and drink away! A straw filter is great for outdoor on-the

Nakii portable water filter (One Green Planet)-go uses. Hikers should carry one of these filters in their backpacks and kits.

Another kind of portable water filter is a wide spout filter, like the Nakii water filter. A wide spout filter can be placed on top of cups or pitchers, which makes it easy to pour the water through. The water that drips into the cup or pitcher is purified. This is an easy little tool you can throw in your bag or car and bring wherever you go.

There are water bottles that have filters built into the spout so you can bring filtered water on (aquaovo)the go. The Aquaovo Alter Ego Frio and the bobble Water Bottle are two examples of these portable filters. The Aquaovo is one of the more expensive water bottle filters. At $65.00 on Amazon, this water bottle is made of stainless steel with thermal insulation. It filters contaminants like PCBs, fluoride, lead, arsenic, chlorine, aluminum, radon and contaminants

bobble Water Bottle (bobble)

from lakes like giardia and cryptosporidium from the water. It holds up to 21 oz. of water. On the other end of the price spectrum is bobble. Bobble, which costs $11.09 on Amazon, is a portable, reusable water bottle with a carbon-based filter that eliminates chlorine and other organic contaminants.

Portable water filters are an important item to own. Most people don’t realize the importance of clean drinking water. Water keeps the body healthy, so you should be putting the cleanest water possible in your body. Not only does a water filter keep the body healthy, it keeps the wallet, and the environment, healthy too. You could save around $1,800 a year by using a reusable, filtered water bottle instead of plastic water bottles. Having a portable water filter saves money and could save you from harmful chemicals that are in your drinking water!