Most people nowadays are aware of the damage to the environment drinking water from a single-use plastic bottle does.
From the manufacturing process which uses lots of energy and pumps out harmful emissions to the fact that plastic takes up to 500 years to break down.
Sadly, this awareness has not led to a big change in people’s purchasing habits.
In the UK alone, 7.7 billion plastic water bottles are bought each year and only 59% of plastics are recycled, which leaves around 3.2 billion bottles becoming plastic waste.
The average person in the UK is now using 150 plastic water bottles every year – that’s more than 3 a week.
Many are discarded and end up polluting our rivers and seas.
It is estimated over 1 million marine animals die each year from plastic ingestion (but the number could be much higher).
There are also believed to be health-related issues to drinking plastic bottled water especially when the bottles are exposed to heat and bright light (for example from being left exposed in a car in summer).
If you needed another reason, drinking bottled water is expensive, even at £1 per bottle, 150 bottles a year is a considerable sum of money to spend on something so accessible.
So what can you do to help reduce this plastic bottle problem?
The easiest way is to switch to a refillable water bottle, made from sustainable, recyclable material.
You can fill your bottle as often as you want from the tap at a fraction of the cost of a single-use plastic water bottle.
Some people, unfortunately, don’t like the taste of tap water which is why they drink bottled water.
If that is the case, you can always invest in a water filter jug that can be filled from the tap and stored in the fridge.
This makes your water taste great and stay refreshing meaning you will never need a single-use plastic water bottle again.
Water filters do however come with an issue!
The filters are normally replaced every 4-6 weeks meaning more than 100 million filter cartridges go to landfill each year.
But there is a solution to this problem too!
Our friends over at Phox set out in 2019 to create the first refillable water filter cartridge.
Simply open the filter cartridge and pour in the fresh filter granules every 45 days.
With zero disposable plastic and letterbox friendly refills, the Phox water filter emits 75% less C02 than competing brands.
So if you want to Play It Green and do your bit to stop 7.7 billion plastic bottles and 100 million filter cartridges going to landfill – ditch single-use bottles and get yourself a Phox Water filter.
To save the planet and save you money, Phox has kindly given all Play It Green members 10% off their purchases.
Simply head over to their website, make your purchase and use the code Playit10 at checkout!
‘Innovation is one of the ways we will solve the climate crisis and I love what Phox Water is doing.
Solving the issue of single-use plastic not just by reducing the number of single-use water bottles going to landfill, but also solving the same issue with water filters!
This is something everyone can get behind to make a positive impact of their own’.
Richard Dickson – Co-Founder, Play It Green.
If you want to take a journey of sustainability, starting with offset through reforestation and following with weekly tips, news and challenges, you can’t do better than Joining Play It Green.
Click the button below to take your next step to a more sustainable future.