RE: Change Starts with You: Water Bottle Win
I have a water filter that was 200 dollars including installation and a years supply of filters. They said it can produce 40L to 80L a day before you should consider changing filters more often. It's around 60 for a years supply.
My office doesn't have plumbing outside the washroom, so we rely on the water cooler. Those are collected and refilled so it's a decent option. The plastic is much more durable, too. It's much better than single serving bottles.
However, I would argue it is less hygenic than the bathroom tap water since the machine is rarely cleaned.
When people get sick from bottled water or water they store in a jug, it rarely makes news and people just blame it on something else (like fastfood or bad cooking). When tap water makes people sick, it is usually national news because it is so rare, especially with modern UV treatment.
I remember in biology class we went around swabbing various surfaces for germs then putting them into Petrie dishes to watch what grows. The place where the water came out of on the water fountain was significantly worse than the toilet seat and toilet water (after flushing.) Clean your taps and water lines!
There are 25Cents of Return on any plastic vessel in the EU region, that really helped a lot. I buy mostly beverages in glass vessels personally - it's just a bit unhandy if you have children around.
Drinking filtered water tap water is possible to a certain extent in my area. But the water here is overall very 'hard' and doctors warned us to mainly rely upon that. It might cause kidney stones, they said. So the mix makes a good result.
But I personally despise this plastic madness since I can think for myself. It really is madness!