Filtered Not Bottled Grantees Announced
January 30, 2025
These grants will support efforts to expand clean water access without toxic plastic and lead as part
Filtered Not Bottled
Safe Drinking Water Without Plastic Pollution
Clean drinking water is a fundamental human right—it should be safe, accessible, and free of the harms of single-use plastic bottles. During water crises, communities often face limited safe options for drinking water and turn to bottled water—provided by governments or bought by households—for drinking, cooking, and washing.
Our Filtered Not Bottled campaign champions water equity by advocating for filtered water, not single-use plastic water bottles.
- ✔ ️ Filters that are certified to remove water contaminants like PFAS, microplastics, and lead are a temporary drinking water solution until public water systems can ensure the tap water is safe.
- ❌ Single-use plastic water bottles, like all plastics, are a health threat to people and the environment at every stage of their existence.
Plastic Pollutes
Production
- Plastic production releases highly toxic chemicals that contaminate the air, soil, and water. This pollution harms primarily low-income, rural, and BIPOC frontline/fenceline communities, contributing to elevated rates of asthma, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.
- Plastics are made from fossil fuels and push the planet deeper into the climate crisis. We must reduce our reliance on these materials.
Consumption
- Most plastic water bottles are made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which leach toxic chemicals, hormone-disruptors, and micro and nanoplastics into the water they hold.
- These endocrine-disrupting chemicals can impede development, especially in children, and increase a person’s risk for health problems like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, infertility, and neurobehavioral problems.
Waste
- The bulk of plastic water bottles are not recycled. They are often sent to landfills or incinerators, shipped overseas, or dumped and open-burned. This poses health risks to communities near these facilities and emits greenhouse gases.
- Plastics break up into dangerous microplastics and have been found throughout the human body. Microplastics can disrupt the body’s hormone system and activate harmful inflammation.
Filter Out the Lead
In the U.S., over 9.2 million households still have lead water pipes, disproportionately impacting Black, Brown, Indigenous, rural, and low-income communities. Lead is an extremely dangerous toxic chemical that harms children’s growth, brain development, and behavior, damages kidneys, and causes immunotoxicity. This is a public health emergency.
The Biden-Harris Administration in 2021 pledged to remove all lead service lines, and this commitment was supported by the EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule Improvements. The rule mandates most U.S. water systems to replace lead pipes within 10 years, with some exemptions extending up to 20 years, such as in Chicago, Illinois. There is no safe level of lead.
Supplying drinking water to all households with lead pipes for just six months would require an estimated 32 billion single-use plastic water bottles.
The rule does mandate filters be provided to continually impacted communities. Filters ensure that households have an immediate clean water source without toxic lead and plastic. However, gaps in the EPA rule leave many, especially children, vulnerable to continued lead exposure. Stronger action is needed to protect human health.
Urgent Recommendations:
All households impacted by lead pipes should be provided with filters and replacement cartridges—not plastic bottles—before, during, and up to six months after replacement. Purchasing bottled water costs households hundreds to thousands of dollars more than tap water. Providing water filters (certified to NSF/ANSI Standard 53) is a cost-effective and equitable solution for clean drinking water, but their success depends on:
- Free and direct distribution to households to eliminate access barriers and boost usage rates.
- Extensive culturally relevant education and outreach to build trust, encourage use, and ensure communities know how to use and maintain their filters.
Take Action
Join us in telling the EPA to advance Filtered Not Bottled water and ensure safe drinking water without plastic pollution. Sign on here.
Take action to ensure your community receives filtered, not bottled water. Download our advocacy toolkit and factsheet (also available in Spanish) to find ways to educate your community, engage with stakeholders, and more.
Your mayor needs to hear from you! Click here to write to your mayor and let them know your community needs Filtered Not Bottled water, and Plastic Free Pipes.
More Recommendations
- Full service line replacement: Water systems must cover the cost of replacing all lead pipes, including the portion of the line on private property. Utilities should also allow any adult occupant to approve replacements to ensure full compliance.
- Plastic Free Pipes: Replace lead pipes with non-toxic materials like recycled copper—not plastics like PVC or PEX, which age quickly and can be a significant source of microplastic particles in water, leaching hormone-disrupting chemicals, neurotoxins and carcinogens. Plastics can introduce additional toxic chemicals into the water, further harming community health.
- Filters in Schools: Adopt a filter-first approach in schools and childcare centers. Install and maintain filters certified to remove lead to replace fountains and use at all taps for drinking or cooking to ensure children have safe water.
Latest News
U.S. EPA’s Lead Pipe Rule Reduces Lead and Plastic Pollution, But Falls Short
October 8, 2024
The Biden-Harris Administration took a major step toward ensuring safe drinking water by releasing the final Lead
Toxic-Free Water: Filters as a Solution to Protect Your Health from Plastic and Other Pollutants
March 23, 2023
Drinking water filters are a safe solution to protect your family’s health from plastic and other pollutants.
Get Involved
If you or your organization would like to learn more about the Filtered Not Bottled campaign, support our efforts, or access tools to advocate for equitable and safe drinking water solutions, please reach out to our team.
