Filter.

After nearly a decade of going the 
name-brand fillable water pitcher filtration route (I'm guessing you know which one I'm eluding to) I decided our family needed a change. To something a little more sustainable and a little less etched, cloudy, probably leaching toxins, plastic.

Never mind the whole buying new inserts, recycling the old inserts thing.

(Thankfully, though, we do have a place to recycle them in our city.)

So when I came across the above, couldn't be simpler, method I was sold.

I ordered the Japanese binchotan charcoal sticks on Amazon. (Is there anything Amazon doesn't sell? I mean, really? Is there?) And the glass 1 gallon Mason jar with spigot from Macy's.

The rest is purely science. Or maybe magic. Or perhaps sheer delusion on my part?

I mean, I know, it's a stick. In water.

But our water does taste better. We don't have to fill a pitcher 5+ times a day. Those other plastic insert filters are filled with the same charcoal, essentially. (It's just ground up. And contained.) And after about 
2-3 months, when this stick has served it's purpose, I can toss it into our compost and start over.

Very much worth it in my mind.

There is a tiny bit of maintenance, of course. Beside sanitizing the jar, first thing, and cleaning it regularly. 

Before it's first use you are supposed to brush the charcoal stick clean under cold running water and then boil it for 10 minutes to activate it. And you continue to do the boiling for 10 minutes thing every 2 weeks or so. To refresh the charcoal, as the instructions, that come included, say.

But that's it.

Not bad. And not plastic.

(P.S. They do sell specifically designed glass jars, for the charcoal sticks, on Amazon. I just wanted something that didn't require pouring. So my suddenly very interested in drinking more water, because there's a cool, black, stick in it, 8 year old could just help herself.)