BOULDER, Colo. — Staying hydrated is key for outdoor activities in Colorado's summer heat, but the last thing people want to see is a plastic water bottle littering the natural landscape. So, a Boulder company has a solution. You're in good company this week with Epic Water Filters.
Too often, drinking water means more trash along our rivers and trails. Epic Water Filters wants to help eliminate the litter of single-use plastic bottles.
"Each one of these filters takes the place of 550 single-use plastic water bottles," said co-founder Joel Stevens.
He and his business partner, Ash Heather, started the company to convince people there's a cleaner, healthier way to drink water from the tap.
"There's a lot of stuff in the water," said Stevens. "Obviously, you've seen Denver has had a lot of problems with lead in the water. And so, using a filter can remove a lot of these contaminants."
He says their bottle filters can remove more than 70 different harmful agents. Their home filtration systems can remove 200.
"Some of the most common ones are chlorine, fluoride, PFOAs, microplastics," said marketing director Forrest Gallagher. "There are a lot of pharmaceutical drugs they filter out."
Joel says the difference is in the carbon block filters they use, as opposed to the more common granular filters you sometimes see.
They also have a water pitcher filter on the market, known to be the only one to filter out bacteria and viruses.
"There's actually been about 20-thousand boil alerts in the last four years in the United States," said Stevens. "For micro-biologically unsafe water."
And, they partner with another American made product, Nalgene, for their water bottles.
"It comes with an insert that will outline all the things your bottle can do," said Gallagher. "This is the filter in the compostable bag. And then, this is the straw that will attach to the filter and the lid."
So, you can have fresh water wherever you go, without the ugly footprint others may leave behind.
Gallagher says Epic's water filters last about three-to-four months. The company also partners with the Inland Ocean Coalition for volunteer on river clean-ups along the Front Range.
If you'd like to learn more about Colorado businesses I've featured as part of our "In Good Company" series, download the free Denver7 Plus app to your Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire, or Android device.
