Whether you’re headed to the gym, jogging or biking outside, or cheering the kids on at the weekend soccer game, you know that hydration is key. It’s impossible to have a good workout—or climb, if you’re like our family—without a good source of water nearby. But why do so many of us opt for the wrong kind of water when we’re sweaty?
People throw plastic water bottles into exercise bags for their “convenience,” but in reality, they’re a huge hassle. Disposable plastic bottles have to be bought at the store, loaded up in the car, brought home, and lugged inside. Even then you still need to deal with the waste. All those empty bottles have to get added to your recycling and moved to the end of your driveway.
The Real Cost of Bottled Water
Water is only really convenient when you can get it filtered right at your faucet—not when it’s manufactured and packaged at a plant. There’s no reason to pay for advertising or transportation of bottled water when you fill the bottles up yourself. It’s so much easier to buy a non-disposable, reusable bottle and get water from a
bottle-free cooler or your home’s filtered tap. Not only are reusable bottles better for the planet, they can end up saving you a lot of money, too!
The International Bottled Water Association says that the average wholesale
price of bottled water is $1.20 per gallon. That’s wholesale—not retail. Put another way: Bottled water costs about
300 times more than tap water. Compare that number with the value of a home filtration system. For just pennies a day, a high-efficiency drinking water system can filter enough tap water for your entire family! That’s gallons and gallons of fresh, filtered water flowing right from your tap, whenever you need it.
The cost of buying bottled water is so extreme because 90% of what people pay for it goes to the
water bottle packaging, not the water quality. That’s like spending $90 on wrapping paper for a $10 gift. Pretty crazy, right? On the other hand, a home filtration system is all about quality and safety standards. They’re installed right at your faucet and designed to take out even the toughest of contaminants. Then your family only drinks the cleanest water possible.
Drinking Water Quality
One of the most startling facts about bottled water is that it’s often less regulated than our municipal tap water. Still, a lot of people continue to pay big bucks for the disposable bottles, with extreme consequences. As if the cost alone wasn’t enough of an issue, the fact that only 1 in 5 plastic bottles ever gets recycled is an even bigger concern. The amount of oil it takes to make this trash (because that’s usually where the plastic bottles end up going) is enough to fuel 1 million cars for a whole year. What a waste!
Probably the easiest way to save yourself some money during the kids’ sports seasons and your own exercise regimen is to ditch bottled water and opt for an in-home filter. Ban the Bottle is just one awesome organization promoting this shift. Their action plan for ditching one-time-use plastic water bottles really simplifies the process. We’re all about eliminating waste here at Indy Soft Water. Our local mission for a Bottle Free Indy means ditching those disposable plastic water bottles for good. We hope you get on board!
Bottle Free Indy
If you want to drink the right water, you’ve got to kick the plastic bottle habit, find a quality water filter, and invest in a reusable water bottle. Doing that will definitely help you stay hydrated (in the right way) during exercise. No more cheap plastic—get something you like, that’s in a cool color and easy to clean. Kid athletes will be more likely to sip on water when they like the look of their sports bottle, so let them help with the selection process. (But if you need something for little-little ones, check out this
reusable bottle list.)
When it comes to an active lifestyle, the best water you can drink during exercise will be clean and affordable. Filling up from your home filtration system is sure to get better quality drinking water than the regular tap, and for a lot less than buying those disposable bottles. Just fill your reusable bottle up, and let the games begin!
