🌿
Eco Score 6/10

Good eco-friendly choice

Water & Waste

Brita

Brita Standard Pitcher Filter

★★★★★ 4.5 / 5

Brita is the most familiar water filter in the US — cheap, simple, and genuinely effective at what it's designed for: chlorine taste and odor, plus most lead, mercury, and copper. It is not designed to meaningfully remove PFAS, fluoride, arsenic, or nitrates, which is where reverse osmosis is a different tier of filtration, not just a pricier version of the same thing.

$34.99 pitcher + 1 filter (~$20/filter thereafter, every 40 gal)

Pros

  • ✓Low upfront cost and no installation — fits in a fridge
  • ✓Removes about 97% of chlorine taste/odor and most lead, mercury, and copper
  • ✓Simple filter swaps, available at every US grocery store

Cons

  • ✗Not designed to meaningfully remove PFAS (“forever chemicals”), fluoride, arsenic, or nitrates
  • ✗Ongoing filter cost adds up — a new filter roughly every 40 gallons
  • ✗Pitcher and cartridges are plastic, replaced repeatedly over the pitcher's life
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