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Brita XL Water Dispenser and Filter
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Published: Aug 06, 2023
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If you live in New York or Los Angeles — really, if you live anywhere there are Audis and lattes and gyms with personal trainers — you know it is not chic to gulp water from a public fountain. In this way, almost unthinkingly, you become a consumer of gourmet water. Time goes by. It seems you have always carried a small bottle of purchased water; it fits in your hand as naturally as your iPhone.
Each of us drinks, on average, 167 bottles of water a year. Those bottles take 1,000 years to degrade. 80% of the bottles we discard — even the 20% of bottles dropped in recycling bins — end up as litter. Bottled water burns oil; it takes 1.5 million barrels to manufacture a year’s supply of bottles for American consumers. And, irony of ironies, bottled water wastes water: It takes 3 liters of water to package a liter of bottled water. Carbon footprint? You don’t want to know. Fiji Water, anyone?
What is Right Conduct? Filter your water and, if you’re going out, take it with you. In a thermos.
A New Yorker piece — The Nonsense of Packaged Water — states this bluntly: “The most ethical option is to avoid single-serving containers altogether, and to drink from the tap using reusable filters and vessels.”
This might lead you to get a Brita Water Dispenser. It holds 1.3 gallons. Uses a reasonably long-lasting filler — you replace it every 40 gallons or 3 months. And you feel good about it: Each Brita water filter replaces 300 standard 16.9 ounce water bottles. [To buy the Brita Water Dispenser, click here. To buy 3 replacement filters, click here.]
One small caution: This dispenser is 10.5″ high. If you want to put it on a refrigerator shelf, you’ll need a 12″ clearance between shelves. And it’s 14.5″ deep; if you have a skinny refrigerator and want to chill your water, this isn’t for you. But then where is it writ that water must be both bottled and refrigerated?
