Saving money and the environment

One of the biggest issues when traveling out of the western world is finding clean water. While many tourists destination will offer some form of treated or clean water, if you find yourself in the great unknown, you may also find yourself in search of a clean source of water. Regardless of which road you are planning to take, clean water is going to be an issue that needs to be addressed.

For many travelers, the way to curb this problem is by buying loads of bottled water. While this is an easy solution, the fact is, it ends up costing a lot of money. Especially when traveling to hot areas, westerns tend to drink a lot of water. This leads to multiple bottles of water purchased per day. On top of the building costs, the amount of plastic used by buying water is mind boggling. The best way for travelers to save money, while saving the environment, is to bring some form of personal water purification.

While the options are in abundance (from iodine drops to clean filters), for the past four months I’ve been using a device called the Steripen Traveler. The product is a pen shaped UV light, weighing only a few pounds, that can be used to purify up to 1 liter of water in a matter of minutes. The Steripen uses UV rays to cleanse the water from all the bacteria that can’t be seen, leaving you with fresh, purified water. The Steripen costs around $50 and can be used up to 3,000 times before needing to be replaced. That is 3 liters of water per day for nearly 3 years.

The pitfall to the Steripen, of course, is that the water must be filtered before using, and it also doesn’t affect the taste. For me personally, I’ve been using the Steripen to purify tap water throughout the countries I’ve visited. I’ve been stomach problem free, and hydrated for months. To combat the different tastes (which there have been some interesting ones), packets of Gatorade, Pocari Sweat, or Emergen-C can be found all over the world, and mixed in to add flavor.

Help stop the amount of plastic being turned to rubbish, and save a few bucks. All it takes is a stop to the outdoors store before heading abroad. 

Photo courtesy of Steripen