New Monterey business makes water filtered, tasty and bottle-free.

By now, all San Francisco public buildings should have made the switch to bottle-less water dispensers, using Hetch Hetchy drinking water. The move is a result of the mayor’s directive requiring city and county agencies to stop using bottled water by Dec. 1. It’s one of the ways in which San Francisco aims to go green. “Supplying the plastic water bottles that American consumers purchase in one year requires more than 47 million gallons of oil, the equivalent of 1 billion pounds of carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere,” it reads.

In Monterey, a new company called PureH2O, Inc. has a simple solution to eliminate at least some of the 1 billion plastic bottles that end up in California landfills every year: water filters.

PureH2O offers hot- and cold-water dispensers utilizing a five-stage reverse osmosis system that purifies water at its point of use. The system filters everything from ordinary sediments to heavy metals, viruses, bacteria and chloric elements in tap water. It also eliminates odors. While the firm is local, the product is manufactured by Hyundai Air & Water Technologies, for which PureH2O is a licensed distributor.

“My partner Sal Tringali and I both have small children and we were using a lot of bottled water,” says Chris Tonini, PureH20’s CEO. The more they read about the varying quality of bottled water, harmful phthalates that can leach from plastic, and the 1,000-year decomposition rate of plastic bottles, the more they felt that there had to be a green alternative that would provide clean, safe, consumable water.

The young firm has rapidly begun to establish a commercial and residential client base in Monterey County, with plans to expand around the Central Coast. Among its clients are Carmel Unified School District and Union Bank of California.

Monterey’s Whole Foods is also a customer. “We have 225 employees, and we provide drinking water out front for our customers,” says Kelly Takikawa, the store’s manager. “This system is a lot cheaper than bottled water. It’s a simple system that’s easy to install.”