Pure Elements – Whole House Water Filters

Using technology in home water filter systems, we easily remove physical impurities down to 1/10,000 of micron.  The plastic pieces in the ocean (known as “Mermaid’s Tears”), although broken down by the ocean’s movement and the sun, are much larger.  Simple home cartridge water filters usually filter down to between 1 and 5 microns (the diameter of a human hair is 40 microns, for reference).  If we build large physical filter “paddles” or “scoops” on the bottom of the tankers, we could essentially vacuum the surface of the ocean while trolling the Pacific Gyre .  The filter mechanisms could rotate into the ship, with the debris being rinsed off using high-pressure sprayers and stored the ship’s belly for later recycling.  The problem is severe and this approach would only touch the surface (literally), but it would be a start…

Read more about Pacific Gyre clean-up here.

At least we do not have to worry about particles this big in our drinking water.  But what about all the things you cannot see?  Those contaminants are what can cause trouble.  A good whole house water filter like stated above can remove those tiny invisible heavy metals, pesticides, as well as chlorine and other chemicals.

Whole house water purification is becoming more and more essential to our daily lives.  What else explains the gigantic sales of all the exotic bottled waters?  People are afraid of their tap water and they should not be if the water is properly filtered.  There is no need to buy expensive bottled water when you can drink and shower in tap water safely.  You just need the best whole house water filter on the market to feel confident.

Call us today and ask us some questions about the HealthyHome Solution water filter and how it can benefit your life.

I have been wondering for a while – We utilize exceptional water treatment technologies in today’s whole house water purification systems that effectively improve our lives and offer an opportunity for enhanced home wellness. Yet what use are these technologies when it comes to addressing the Pacific Gyre (also known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch)? In fact, how many people even know what the Pacific Gyre is?  For those of you who know what we are doing to our ocean waters, this question has already crossed your mind. If you haven’t heard about this severe issue, Google it and you will be absolutely shocked at what is happening off the coast of California.

I sometimes lay awake at night knowing that Pure Elements’ water systems have helped provide higher water quality for people in their homes, but how can we remove all of the plastic bottles, toys and other items from the Pacific ocean and save our sea life (and ultimately ourselves)?

It may seem crazy – but what if we took our old tankers that can no longer transport oil or cargo and converted them, using our best water filtration system, into big “sweepers” the traveled back and forth across the Gyre picking up debris and contaminants? I was just wondering…

Are Water Softener Companies Going to Help The Environment with New Technologies in California?

If you have been following the news in California, you have probably seen the recent move by cities and municipalities to ban old-fashioned salt-based water softeners.

This is not a new controversy – softener bans were in place in California over 30 years ago in some areas.  However, there is definitely a new awareness of the environmental issues caused directly by the chlorides introduced into the ecosystem from water softeners.  These products operate by removing calcium from incoming water and replacing it with sodium or potassium.  In the regeneration or self-cleaning process, salt brine goes down the drain as calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, and excess sodium or potassium chloride.  Wastewater treatment facilities remove very little of these mineral concentrations, and therefore they are passed along to the environment.  

Chlorides and increased salinity negatively affect recycled water and wastewater quality.  The ability for municipalities to meet federal guidelines becomes dramatically impaired as salinity increases, sometimes resulting in federal fines.   In addition to increasing the costs for wastewater treatment (seen directly in your water bill), the salts wreak havoc on landscape and farming irrigation, reducing crop quality and yields.  Chlorides can also harm aquatic life. Laundry detergents work less efficiently, plumbing fixtures and home appliances wear out faster, and costs increase for maintaining boilers, cooling towers and manufacturing processes.  Everyone bears these increased costs and the environment is adversely affected.

Why are companies like Culligan fighting so hard to avoid bans on these old-fashioned machines, rather than putting their efforts into finding alternative technologies that benefit the environment?  If you have been following the news, Culligan (the largest player in California) has been making every effort to diffuse the issue by pointing to other sources of salts and chlorides, rather than offering a real solution.  It is profit motivation, pure and simple.  The water softening business is a $500 million annual cash cow for these companies.  And the water softener salt and potassium business is also a multimillion dollar industry driving big profits for companies like Morton.

Major water softener companies also stand to make millions of dollars by providing a portable exchange tank service (where the regeneration takes place en mass at a plant instead of in the individual home, and the salts are routed to another area where a ban is not yet in place).  Rental services like this require access to the customer’s home once every three weeks, offer only unpredictable efficiency, and continually tap into checkbooks with no opportunity for ownership.

So what can the manufacturers of old-fashioned water softeners do, if they are really concerned about the environment?  The answer lies in alternative technologies, some old and some new, that do not rely on salt, potassium or chlorides to reduce hard water problems for consumers.  I have personally worked with several companies for nearly three decades that use specific catalysts and/or media to reduce hard water issues in the home, without any foreign substances required to perform well.  These technologies have stood the test of time, making permanent changes in the hard water minerals (unlike inconsistent magnetic or sonic devices).  When combined with whole house water filtration, these systems can produce exceptional water quality for consumption, cooking, ice and other household needs.

The time has come for the manufacturers of traditional salt-based water softeners to think outside the box, rather than spending their time, advertising and public relations dollars to scratch for share in shrinking market.  New technologies exist for those with open minds – everyone and our environment will be better off when these companies decide to become innovative once again.

Reference: LA Times Link…  LA Times article, June 26, 2009 — Culligan lobbies…

PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic water bottles have come to the forefront of our consciousness lately for two reasons – we are casually covering the surface of our planet with them in landfills even though it takes 700 years for them to start to decompose, and we are increasing the possibility of health issues by consuming water stored in them.  Only one in five plastic water bottles are ultimately recycled, resulting in the rest traveling to the landfills.  Why is this happening?

The environmental and health issues associated with the production and use of plastic water bottles deserve our attention.  Sales of bottled water, driven by intensive marketing campaigns from big players like Coca-Cola (Dasani), Pepsi (Aquafina) and Nestle, increased at a rate of 8.9 percent last year.  This year Americans will spend a staggering 16 billon dollars on bottled water. We should also note that tap water can have off tastes and odors while still being healthy, so taste is another reason for the success of bottled water in the US.

The numbers are unbelievable – each year we put 38 billion plastic water bottles into landfills, and the number is growing.   That is 38 billion with a “B”!  And with a half-life (half the time it takes a plastic bottle to decompose completely) of up to 1,000 years, these bottles aren’t going to just go away in our lifetimes, or those of our kids, or even those of our grandchildren.

Let’s look at these key questions:

1)    Do we really need to buy bottled water?  Well, only if we believe what we are told in the marketing campaigns.  The US is the largest bottled water market in the world, but are we getting what we are paying for?  Numerous studies over the past decade have compared tap water to bottled and found no difference, or in the case of this recent study by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) the findings suggest that tap water can actually be better in quality! [http://www.ewg.org/reports/bottledwater].  So the level of necessity depends on your tolerance for the alternatives – Drink tap water; get your water from flavored beverages; or filter your water at home with a quality whole house water filter system or use under counter water filters.

2)    Do plastic water bottles pose a health concern?  This is a controversial topic.  However, it is a fact that bisphenol A (BPA), a common plastic binder found in many polycarbonate bottles, is making its way into our bodies.  In 2003 and 2004, studies by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found BPA in the urine of 93% of children and adults tested.  BPA mimics estrogens in the human bloodstream and studies on animals have demonstrated developmental toxicity, carcinogenic effects, and possible neurotoxicity at low doses. The amounts found recently in humans are higher than those in the animals tested by the CDC.  This is enough to convince me that plastic water bottles are something we should try to avoid in our search for longevity.

We’ll save the discussions of the energy required to make water bottles in the US for another time.  The bottling industry uses the equivalent of nearly 100 million barrels of oil each year, excluding transportation, in bottle production.  And it should be disconcerting that manufacturing plastic bottles causes greenhouse emissions and wastes about three liters of water to produce one liter of bottled water.

The bottom line:  How can we stem the tide of plastic?

We can choose to take simple steps to reduce the problems plastic bottles create for our planet and the Human Race.

Step One:  Reduce your use of bottles by purchasing the best drinking water filter system you can get which will give you water quality as good as bottled water and then use reusable stainless or non-leaching plastic bottles.  (You can drink out of the tap without a filter but you’ll learn from other articles here, you may not want to do that anymore.  It isn’t very safe.)

Step Two:  When you do use a plastic bottle, RECYCLE IT.

A bit of perspective:   If we can affect the outcome of American Idol or Dancing with the Stars by simply texting a few numbers, can’t we make a difference by choosing to reduce our reliance on plastic bottles and recycling them when we do use them?

See you at the recycling center – our planet and health for generations to come depend on it.