Environmental Resources Management Study Advocates Putting Hydration Reservoirs in the Dishwasher to Reduce Environmental Impact, GEIGERRIG Says

January 3, 2013 - Curt Geiger, President of Geigerrig® Hydration Packs says, "If it's environmentally sound for reusable water bottles, then it's environmentally sound for hydration reservoirs."

A recent lifecycle assessment study conducted by Environmental Resources Management, third party reviewed, and sponsored by Rubbermaid® concluded that Reusable Water Bottles requiring hand-washing have a higher environmental impact than those that are dishwasher safe (PR Newswire, Nov. 28, 2012). The results of this study are further recognized in the corporate social responsibility declarations of Camelbak® specifying, among other things, the steps Camelbak has taken to eliminate bottled water and the environmental waste it generates: "Our bottles are dishwasher safe. The dishwasher uses half the energy, one-sixth the water and less soap vs. hand washing." So do these results hold true for the cleaning of hydration reservoirs as well? Geigerrig, the developers of today's pressurized hydration systems, hydration packs, and plug-and-play in-line filters, say "Yes".

The lifecycle assessment study concluded that the household washing of reusable water bottles represents the largest component of a bottle's environmental impact because the energy needed for residual water heater is much higher than the electricity consumption for a dishwasher when washing the same amount of place settings. This environmental impact differential is greatly expanded when considering the inconvenience and hot-water use associated with the required hand cleaning of today's traditional 2-3 liter hydration reservoirs vis-a-vis the standard 20-30 ounce reusable water bottles. Traditional hydration reservoirs have tubes, bite valves, screw caps, and large flexible membranes that require a greater volume of hot-water use for hand cleaning; and to help address these considerations, companies like Camelbak recommend the purchase and use of their multi-piece plastic cleaning kits to help execute a multi-stage hand-cleaning process. The result is more hot-water use during cleaning; more plastic stuff that gets discarded, broken and lost; and a level of inconvenience that too often results in throwing away the entire reservoir in favor of buying a new, clean one. However, the pressurized hydration reservoirs from Geigerrig fully adopt Camelbak's conscientious environmental standard for cleaning water bottles and for doing away with bottled water: The Geigerrig® hydration reservoirs, unlike their predecessors, can be reversed and cleaned in the top shelf of the dishwasher, have drastically improved filtration capabilities, and therefore pose a much reduced environmental impact.

It is true that the eradication of bottled water requires reusable hydration products and easy, on-the-go, in-line filtration. Geigerrig is proud to lead this effort in the world of hydration packs.