The world’s most advanced water purifiers for the home are made in Woking. Time to bin the bottle, says Catherine Whyte
Bottled or tap? How do you stay hydrated now that summer is a-coming in? Personally, I’ve never been one for buying bottled. All that plastic just seems wrong – experts reckon that three million tonnes of it is used annually worldwide for water bottling purposes alone. It’s enough to make the blood boil.
There’s no denying that, in post-Blue Planet Britain, the anti-plastic movement is beginning to swell. Single use straws are the new pariahs, shunting plastic bags off their ‘most hated’ pedestal. Yet the public’s love affair with bottled water remains as ardent as ever, even with negative studies – such as the one from March this year that found microplastics in 93% of branded bottled water (as well as in 83% of tap water around the world) – flooding our news feeds.
Good timing, therefore, when a friend mentioned The Pure H2O Company. Based just outside Woking, it makes the world’s most technologically advanced water purifiers for the home. Raymond Blanc is a big fan – Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons uses the company’s systems, as does Great Fosters country house hotel in Egham.
“It’s our firm belief that there are no acceptable levels of impurities for drinking water,“ says Roger Wiltshire, Managing Director of Pure H2O.
Roger, it transpires, has been on a one-man mission to improve “health, quality of life and the wider environment” since the early 90s, when he took over the UK rights to the US company and began supplying health food stores with refill stations in a manner akin to that of popular cleaning product brand Ecover.
A natural innovator and engineer par excellence, he has been refining and developing the unique technology ever since, even inventing his own high-tech, touch screen, multi-function Quatreau taps – dispensing cold, hot, boiling and sparkling water – at about the same time that Apple launched the iPad. Impressive.
“UK tap water is regulated with set maximum permissible levels of contaminants, but even these are being breached, most recently by the slug poison metaldehyde,” he says.
Fortunately, Pure H2O’s systems reach the parts other filtration systems cannot reach by putting tap water through a process known as RODI (reverse osmosis and deionisation).
“Our patented technology also removes the heavy metals, inorganic salts and micro-organisms which jug filters and other systems fail to filter out,” explains Roger. “Oh, and micro-plastics too.”
The process produces pure water containing only hydrogen and oxygen, leaving the water with less than 10 parts per million dissolved solids – purer than bottled water. It can be used for drinking, cooking or washing fruit and vegetables, as well as for making crystal clear ice cubes, and will leave no limescale in kettles or scum on tea.
Moreover, the systems are truly green: food miles are reduced to zero and, with no need to buy bottled water, there’s no plastic or glass waste generated at all.
Roger’s contempt forthe bottled water industry remains undiluted.
“The notion that bottled water improves your health is just plain fantasy. It’s not this natural product that the marketing hype would have us believe – it’s not better for you and the cost to the environment is very high.”
Post-interview, I dive into Google and am surprised to learn that the discourse around the health benefits of mineral water is muddy indeed. The phrases ‘very largely a scam’ and ‘national scandal’ make startlingly frequent appearances.
That being so, pure water could well become the new frontier in our odyssey towards optimum health. Many of us are happy to pay more and support organic farmers, so why not take a similar line with water?
Roger’s most basic systems can be rented for the price of about three lattes a week and fit snugly under the sink (you can also get filters at the entry point of your house so that your bathing water is filtered too). What’s more, all the component parts are made within cycling distance of Pure H2O’s Horsell base, so you’re supporting a truly local business as well.
Perhaps we shall soon be ordering high-tech water filters before even giving a thought to fancy taps.
“Time,” insists Roger, “to put sanity in front of vanity.”
Find out more at: pureh2o.co.uk
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