Can We Tap Our Way out of Bottle Addiction?

Popular is an under­state­ment. By obser­va­tion, the two required acces­sories for ven­tur­ing out nowa­days are a cell phone and a plas­tic water bot­tle. We are sim­ply addicted to dis­pos­able plas­tic con­tain­ers. Fifteen hun­dred plas­tic water bot­tles are con­sumed in the US every sec­ond. Singling out a par­tic­u­lar year for plas­tic bot­tles in gen­eral, in 2006 an esti­mated 60 bil­lion plas­tic single-use bev­er­age con­tain­ers were bought, and approx­i­mately 45 bil­lion of these—three out of four—were thrown out.

These plas­tic con­tain­ers do not biode­grade and sim­ply accu­mu­late in land­fills. The bot­tles that make their way to the ocean have cat­a­strophic effects on our wildlife. A mid-Pacific garbage patch that some have esti­mated to be as large as the con­ti­nen­tal US con­sists mainly of plas­tic, and seabirds and other life con­sis­tently mis­take it for food, with resul­tant star­va­tion and poisoning.

But with bot­tled water mar­ket­ing focus­ing on pris­tine moun­tain streams, the qual­ity of munic­i­pal tap water has come under greater scrutiny and has also helped drive the bot­tled water mar­ket. Analysis of tap water in some areas has revealed heavy met­als and traces of car­cino­gens; and because chlo­rine and flu­o­ride have been added to our tap water for years, these ele­ments have many con­cerned as well.

In fair­ness, some tap waters test for high purity (bet­ter than some bot­tled waters), while a num­ber of highly pop­u­lar brands of bot­tled water are sim­ply fil­tered tap water.

Today, tap water fil­tra­tion sys­tems have became eas­ily avail­able in the form of pitch­ers and under-sink sys­tems, all the way up to whole-house sys­tems, which elim­i­nate ele­ments that make tap water purity an issue, and it is now pos­si­ble to have clean, safe and tasty water from the tap. Even many fine-dining restau­rants are giv­ing patrons a choice of fil­tered or bot­tled waters.

So, how can we eas­ily hydrate on the move with­out so much envi­ron­men­tal plas­tic? Enter Faucet Face—a line of designer reusable glass bot­tles for tap water that are both chic and green. “I’m very aware of touchy-feely aspects of brands, and how peo­ple relate to them in all their sub­tleties,” said Gentry. “The bot­tled water com­pa­nies are excel­lent at that, and I’m endeav­or­ing to bring some of the design and adver­tis­ing back­ground that they use and pro­mote tap water with it.

“We do that with our designs. We’ve got great illus­tra­tors for each design, and we make high-quality bot­tles to appeal to people’s aes­thetic val­ues. We’re using that as an entry to start peo­ple talk­ing about water issues as a whole—trying to make this beau­ti­ful object that is eye-catching and gets a dia­logue going. The idea is that you walk out dur­ing your lunch hour and you have your ‘Tap is Terrific’ bot­tle, and it starts the con­ver­sa­tion about tap water and the waste­ful­ness of bot­tled water.”

Click any image above to see a larger version.

Combining the use (and re-use) of a prod­uct such as Faucet Face bot­tles with a tap water fil­tra­tion sys­tem would mean spend­ing a frac­tion of the money that might be spent on bot­tled water—while cut­ting down on the sub­stan­tial envi­ron­men­tal prob­lems inher­ent in plas­tic bottles.

But Gentry also has his eye on assist­ing under­priv­i­leged areas that don’t have access to clean, safe drink­ing water. “We work closely with a char­ity in Malibu called TMA, and they make what are known as Biosand Filters,” he explained. “A Biosand Filter is a con­crete struc­ture about four feet high, filled with dif­fer­ent lay­ers of sand. It’s really basic tech­nol­ogy, but it’s pretty mirac­u­lous. As you pour dirty water on the top, it goes through the dif­fer­ent lay­ers, organic chem­i­cal reac­tions occur, and the water is cleaned; 95 per­cent of the impu­ri­ties are removed. It doesn’t take any­thing to power the fil­ters, and they last a very long time. Some are still in use after ten years. And all you have to do to main­tain them is stir up the sand.”

Anyone who pur­chases prod­ucts from Faucet Face is auto­mat­i­cally mak­ing a dona­tion of Biosand Water Filters to those in need. “With any of our prod­ucts pur­chased in a store, at least 5 per­cent of the pur­chase will go toward a fil­ter,” Gentry said. “If you pur­chase on our web­site, four bot­tles will help buy a com­plete fil­ter. When you buy one, two or three bot­tles, a por­tion of sales will be com­bined with those from other cus­tomers to make one filter.”

Utilizing a tap water fil­tra­tion sys­tem along with a prod­uct such as Faucet Face, it is now cool, cost effi­cient, and envi­ron­men­tally and socially ben­e­fi­cial to turn on the tap.

For more infor­ma­tion on Faucet Face prod­ucts, as well as Biosand Water Filters and their ben­e­fits, visit www.faucetface.com.