Bottleless Water Coolers

BilJax has replaced its bottled water coolers with bottleless water coolers. Instead of having water hauled from 12 miles away in 40 pound 5 gallon polycarbonate jugs, the facility now uses a point of source system. Water that is already supplied to the building is filtered and drank. There are a few other good reasons to make the switch:

• There is no risk of injury to the person who has to lift the 40 pound bottle of water to replace the empty ones.
• No more adding to CO2 emissions shipping full and empty water jugs around the area.
• UV lights inside the units kill any bacteria that make its way inside. 
• The cost of 5 gallons of bottled water is comparable to about 1,000 gallons from onsite water lines. That includes the sewer fees.

Why filtered and not reverse osmosis? We did not choose reverse osmosis units because about 3 gallons of water are lost as waste water for every gallon of water it produces for consumption. Because a major part of the switch was an environmental influence, reverse osmosis was not going to work for us. Most large water suppliers of reverse osmosis bottled water use a recovery system that reclaims some of that waste water until they achieve about 90% or better efficiency. Unfortunately that is not the case for a small unit where the ratio is 3:1.

The potential problem with the  polycarbonate container is the concern that the bisphenol A or BPA may leech into the water. Who knows how long the water jugs sit at the factory before they get shipped to your facility or how hot they get in the truck on the ride over. These factors may influence if and how much chemical is leeched into your bottled drinking water.