Water Purification Systems For Travel

In honor of the upcoming Earth Day on April 22, we will be featuring eco-friendly travel gear and tips on choosing Earth friendly gear all week on Travel Gear Blog like how to choose eco-friendly travel gear.

Who says you can’t drink the water in a foreign country? With water filtration systems for travel, you can feel confident drinking the water while you travel and help reduce plastic bottle waste.

Having safe drinking water is important while traveling, but so is being responsible about your environmental impact. The Container Recycling Institute (CRI) estimates that Americans buy more than 28 billion single serving bottles annually. Shockingly around 80% of these bottles are not recycled and end up in the landfill. I can only imagine our bottled water habit to be worse when we travel.

The first time I traveled to Costa Rica, I admit I was disgusted by the water bottle waste I saw. Heaps of water bottles seemed to be everywhere I looked from the beach to the park and nearly every gutter of every city street. I turned my nose up at such waste while taking a swig from the third bottle of water I had purchased that day. Truth is I felt guilty about all the bottles of water I had blown through during my trip, but I didn’t know what other choice I had.

According to the World Health Organization, 80% of all diseases contracted during travel can be linked to contaminated water. Bacteria, viruses, and protozoa are the culprits and these pathogens can easily and reliably be removed from tap water (or water from natural sources like lakes and streams) with a water purification system for travel.

The SteriPen Traveler Mini weighs only 3.6 ounces with batteries and is small enough to slip into your purse or daypack. SteriPEN uses ultraviolet light to purify clear water by destroying 99.9% of protozoa, bacteria, and viruses.  No pumping, chemicals, or extensive filtration process – just dip the SteriPEN in the water, swirl it around, and in under a minute you have safe and reliable drinking water.

Get a wide-mouth Hydro Flask and you can slip the SteriPen in, purify, and drink. The HydroFlask is also perfect for at home. It can keep cold beverages cold for 24 hours and hot beverages warm for 12 hours – so it both eliminates the need for plastic bottles and disposable coffee cups. I swear by this thing and promise that you can easily switch back and forth between coffee and water with no lingering coffee taste whatsoever.

I am also excitedly anticipating the release of a new Hyrdo Flask Filtration System. Due out any day now, the Hydro Flask purification system with have built-in tap water filtration which will be perfect for traveling. I will surely post a review when it becomes available.

>>Buy Steripen Traveler
>>Buy Hydro Flask

[Photo courtesy of epSOS.de]

How do you reduce waste while you travel?