Binchotan Charcoal - Water Filtration
Channel: Happy Holistics
Date: 2017-08-17

City of Toronto Drinking Water Analysis: http://bit.ly/2uP3Dgz 

Article about adsorption in removal of waste from water: http://bit.ly/2uP19yx 

Life of Riley by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1400054
Artist: http://incompetech.com/

———————-

Hey everyone!  My name is Judy from Happy Holistics and today, we’re going to be talking about binchotan charcoal for filtering water.  

So I started using these a couple of years ago.  They look like severely burnt branches and they’re said to work by trapping in toxins from your water, removing the chlorine, lead, etc. and leaving you with fresh, filtered water to drink. 

To use, simply plop the stick into a carafe or water bottle, fill it up with water and wait a few hours so that it can do its thing.  After a couple of hours, you can remove the stick and it’s ready to drink.  Since I toss it into my water bottle, I just leave the stick in there and experts say the longer the charcoal is in contact with the water, the more toxins it’ll trap.  You can use each stick for about 3-4 months, remembering to boil it for 10 min every 2-ish weeks to ‘refresh’ it.  When the 3-4 months are over, you can dry it out and use it as a deodorizer around the house. 

From what I’ve read about activated charcoal, it has adsorption properties where its molecules are charged so they bind to toxins and keep them in there.  It’s the same principle when you use activated charcoal products like face masks, supplements, etc.  And, it’s also actually the same basis in the common Brita-type filtration system.  If you ever break one of those open, you’ll see these black specs, which is activated charcoal made from coconut shells.  It is important to note that amongst water filters, granular activated carbon filters, like Brita, are usually the one that gets the worse ratings.  

One reason I can see that explains this is because once it’s saturated with toxins, when you pour more water through, the toxins could be released back into the water since the hold of the charged particles is only so strong.

So, if you can image a sponge - when it’s dry, it still has a capacity to hold liquid and it’ll take more in, no problem.  But once it’s soaked in all that it can, the excess water is just going leak out.  Imagine the same thing happening when your carbon filter reaches capacity - the excess pollutants are just going to spill out.

But, that raises the question of ‘why the hell am I still using activated charcoal?’  

* It seems to be effective enough - check the description box for a link to adsorption techniques, there’s a section on activated carbon filtration.
* It’s relatively inexpensive - The bigger sticks go for about $11 at the Big Carrot - the last time I checked.  The thinner ‘personal sized’ sticks came in a package of 6 from Amazon at $27.95 plus tax.  
* I also keep track of when to boil my sticks and when to replace them in my planner, so I’m not too concerned about toxins leaching back into my drinking water.
* I also like to believe that Toronto waters aren’t *that* bad to begin with - I’ve included the link to Drinking Water Analysis Reports for my city in the description box below, but a simple googling will likely give you the results from your area and you can decide for yourself whether municipal water treatments are good enough for you.  
* It’s eco-friendly-ish - the filter itself is not contributing to our plastic waste problem - the Brita filters encase their carbon with plastic and disposable plastic bottles are also a big “hell no” for me.
* It also doesn’t produce extensive water waste - as in reverse osmosis filtration systems.  And, when its useful life is over, the charcoal can be broken into pieces and composted.
* I say “eco-friendly-ish because I’m pretty sure the packaging on some binchotan sticks are NOT entirely recyclable, so pay attention to that before buying.  My 6 most recent sticks at least came in bulk, but they packaged it in cardboard, plastic and a paper/plastic mixed mailer.

That’s all I’ve got for you this week, please note that I’m not sponsored by the charcoal people, I just like to show you the natural products I swear by to help you live more holistically.  Also, please subscribe to this channel if you found the information helpful and like up this video.