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Ditch Plastic Water Bottles for Brita Water Jugs & Filters

Are you looking for a BRITA Water jug for your family?

I know a thing or two about tap water quality

In a past life, after I finished my university degree in Education, I worked for the Queensland Government’s ‘Waterwise’ section of (in those days) the Department of Natural Resources. I travelled all over Queensland & New South Wales teaching kids in primary schools all about water. There is a very good chance that if you went to primary school in Queensland, you and your school would have had a visit from me! Thus, I feel well suited to talk about water and water quality locally.

I taught students about where our water comes from, how we collect it, store it, treat it, reticulated (get it to you) and deal with waste. And the good news is, it’s done well – in fact, it’s done to Australian Drinking Water Guidelines that are endorsed by the World Health Organisation!

As a Brisbane family, we don’t need to worry too much about the quality of our drinking water. We are blessed with a safe, fresh water supply that comes directly to our taps with no effort on our part.

But that is only the start of the story….

Can your water be cleaner?

Across SE Queensland, water treatment takes place at 46 locations, including Molendinar and Mudgeeraba on the Gold Coast, Mt Crosby to the west and North Pine to the north of Brisbane, and Landers Shute on the Sunshine Coast.

Whilst our water is treated well and perfectly safe and fresh when it leaves the water treatment plant, it has quite the long journey to get to the tap in your home. Along this journey there is the opportunity to collect ‘deposits’ (potentially heavy minerals) along the way.

How clean your water is when it gets to your home will depend on the pipes that brought it to you… including the pipes in your own home. How old are the pipes in your home? Can you be sure of what your pipes are adding to your water?

It’s worth you doing some further investigating at your house!

The problem with bottled water

With the growing concern around the use of plastic and particularly plastic water bottles, it’s time to think about alternatives to single use plastic water bottles when we want to drink filtered water.

Plastic Facts:

  • A single use plastic bottle that makes its way into the ocean can take 450 years to break down.
  • 11% of household waste is plastic, 40% of which is plastic bottles.
  • By 2050, if we continue with our love affair with plastic, there may be more plastic than fish in the ocean.
  • Australians buy more than 118,000 tonnes of plastic drink bottles a year

It’s reassuring to know that you can achieve clean water without having to fork out a tonne of money and add to the global plastic problem destroying the planet! Store bought water in single use plastic water bottles is no longer a sustainable solution to a quick drink to quench our thirst.

Filtered water – a better alternative to plastic water bottles

Determined to use our own multi-use water bottles and fill them with our own ‘filtered at home’ water from our BRITA jug, I pulled out our reusable water bottles and put the BRITA to the test.

We read the instructions and were impressed to learn that BRITA water filters are German engineered and designed to provide expert levels of filtration for different water conditions around the world. With 50 years in the water filter industry, BRITA is recognised as a global industry leader. (I remember the brand from my childhood!)

BRITA’s unique jug filtration technology for both the MAXTRA+ and MAXTRA+ Limescale filters powerfully transforms tap water, reducing contaminants such as heavy metals (lead and copper), chemicals (chlorine) and other unwanted minerals and sediments.

We do have a problem with limescale in our house (hello new shower head every 2 years – I wonder if they have a ‘fix’ for that?) so I was pleased to see that the filter would remove these nasties from our drinking water!

As well as being ace at removing contaminants, it also was super sensible when it came to cost – BRITA filtered water only costs an average of 9 cents per litre, representing a fraction of the cost of bottled water. Water in single use plastic bottles can range from $1 – $5 for a 375ml bottle (Ekka prices *insert eye roll emoji!)

So, what is the BRITA water filter really like to use?

We were gifted with the new Marella 2.4 litre jug and 2 of the new MAXTRA+ Limescale Filters.

The new Limescale filter is the first of its kind in Australia, removing 50% more Limescale than the standard MAXTRA+ filters, whilst effectively reducing heavy metals, chlorine and some sediments.

We filtered the water for our kettle too as it helps to prolong your appliance’s life by reducing Limescale build-up.

We’ve had the jug for around 3 weeks and have used about half of the first filter… (there’s a handy indicator on the top of the lid that shows you how much life is remaining on each filter!). Generally, the filters last for 4 – 6 weeks (or around 150 litres) before they should be changed to ensure they are working at their best.

So why should we use BRITA water filters?

For our family, there are really three stand out features for using a BRITA water filter.

  1. Sustainability – Save our planet – each BRITA filter can produce 150 litre of fresh tasting water, which in turn means that families can reduce the amount of bottled water they consume (Australian stats suggest this is around 400 x 375ml water bottles per year).
  2. Family health – whilst our water leaves the water treatment plant clean, the pipes that carry it to you may not be. Filtering water before our kids drink it removes nasties that they definitely should not be drinking.
  3. Savings – when you stop buying single use plastic bottles you are saving money too!

How much do the BRITA water filters cost?

Prices for the BRITA water filter jugs start at $27 for the Aluna Jug Frosted White 2.4L – you can shop the range here

Prices for the filter cartridges start from $8.25 (multi-pack buy) – you can shop the range here.

Photo of author

Janine Mergler

Janine Mergler is a veteran Queensland teacher, graduating from QUT with a BEd majoring in Social Sciences. After many years in the classroom, Janine moved on to academia. She has proudly trained new generations of teachers in her role as a lecturer at Queensland University of Technology Faculty of Education. She has also worked in the Queensland Government as an education specialist, developing education resources and delivering community awareness programs to help families conserve water. Currently she is the owner and editor of Families Magazine, a publication specifically targeted at parents who value a quality education for children.  Janine leads a team of professionals who write about family lifestyle, early childhood, schools and education information and family-friendly events.

89 thoughts on “Ditch Plastic Water Bottles for Brita Water Jugs & Filters”

  1. I would love to use these water bottles and jugs as it’s so much better for the environment compared to buying single use water bottles.

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  2. I’d use the Brita products for the savings. We are already slowly moving to using things that are reusable to save money for a holoday

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  3. I would use the Brita products to ensure that my Family had pure drinking water and to prolong the life of my kettle and coffee machine

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  4. My main reason is sustainability. We need to rid plastic bottles and find something better like this refilling our own bottles with filtered great tasting water and save our marine life

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  5. For health reasons.
    Sustainability.
    I use and like one older style jug but I like the idea of the indicator of when replacement if filter is needed..

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  6. Tap water in our town is harsh and bitta,
    so in our home, bottled water’s the heavy hitta,
    but each day we watch the dollars fritta,
    while we add ever more to man-made litta,
    most of all though, to keep the family fitta,
    with clean filtered water, we’d value this Brita!

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  7. Family health – definitely. There are so many toxins and nasties, using BRITA would be one less thing to battle with and a huge plus towards our health

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  8. I would love to have them all but most of all the water bottle, so can carry with me at all times as since had weight loss surgery,it’s hard to drink pain water and this would help so much and been able to have a bottle can fill up anywhere andytime and it will be filtered water 🙂

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  9. Becoming conscious of the amount of plastic that is used in our household. This pack would be a great inclusion in helping our family cut plastic.

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  10. Sustainability as I’ve always been conscious of our ability to over use and waste and using your own water bottles, mugs etc is a huge way of making a difference and protecting our wildlife too.

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  11. As a young mother I always tried to use natural products Now I’m a new grandmother and am determined to use products that support sustainability. Brita is an great example of that.

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  12. I’m originally from Germany where we recycle everything and besides the much better taste of filtered H2O I hate to use bottled water because I do care for my environment ❣️

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  13. Definitely saving money – hubby refuses to drink tap water as he says it tastes “funny”. Needless to say, we spend a tidy sum on bottled water (especially in summer) as he is on the road every day.

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  14. Filtered water at a premium quality and high levels of sustainability forms the main thrust for using Brita systems. The dependability and availability of different filters is also key.

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  15. My 11 year old and I are making a big effort to reduce the number of bottled waters we buy, and recycling those we do end up with. We have one Brita water bottle and fight over who is going to use it because we love our Brita water 😉

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  16. My main reason for using BRITA water filters would be for my families health. Whilst it gets rid of any nasties I also feel that it also has a superior taste/flavour.

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  17. Family health – we dont buy bottled water unless absolutely unavoidable but the taste of the water and the quality in our area can be appalling! There’s only so much boiling you can do in a day to protect our health.

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  18. Definitely family health! Giving our kids fresh, healthy food and drink is so important to use so cleaner water would be amazing!

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  19. Sustainability – Save our planet – each BRITA filter can produce 150 litre of fresh tasting water, which in turn means that families can reduce the amount of bottled water they consume (Australian stats suggest this is around 400 x 375ml water bottles per year).

    Reply
  20. Family health, so many ways you can’t control what you exposing your health too. This is a simple easy to use product that will improve your health

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  21. Family health is my main reason,
    With allergies, fluoride – reasons there are tons,
    I also breed animals who are also my family,
    and need to be organic well and truly,
    The only way to drink water safely is with Brita!

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  22. We drink 90% water in our house (coffee’s got a strong hold one one of us 😉 )
    So making sure it’s the cleanest it can be is ideal and peace of mind.

    Reply

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