Found this article posted on Water Tech Online.com:
"Considering potassium chloride for softening" with a subtitle of "Sodium alternative should be promoted to health and environmentally conscious customers."
Well that caught my eye...anywhere they are talking about environmentally conscious and water softeners, I'm interested.
The article mentions the advantages of Potassium Chloride over Sodium Chloride for water softeners, namely less sodium content for sodium restricted diets and increased potassium (healthier). I kept reading, hoping to find a reasonable explanation for the insinuation that Potassium Chloride is more environmentally friendly than Sodium Chloride. After all...Chlorides are Chlorides, folks, and the Chlorides are the biggest part of the environmental problem from water softeners...also know as "brine discharge".
I found this gem of a sentence under the heading "Environmental Impact" (bold and italics are mine):
The use of potassium chloride in water softeners instead of sodium chloride can diminish the perceived environmental impact of brine discharge because potassium chloride is considered a healthy nutrient for both humans and plants.
The article then goes on to compare the use of Potassium Chloride in fertiliers, thereby.....I don't know, making everything grow so it's all good?? Holy twisted logic, Batman. Here's the fertilizer logic in full (still under the heading "Environmental Impact"!):
Putting this into perspective, potassium chloride is the main source of potash fertilizer in the world. Potassium chloride accounts for 94 percent of all forms of potash used domestically as reported by Agriculture Canada for 1995/1996.The total domestic consumption was 314,000 tons of potassium chloride out of 333,253 total tons of potash, and 4,829,045 tons of all fertilizer. Further, the amount exported was 13,076,0771 tons from a total of 13,082,442 or 99.5 percent.
The total potash consumption worldwide in 1996 was 20,550,000 tons, clearly indicating the environmental advantages to the environment from using potassium chloride as a regenerant.
I don't know what you got out of that, but here's what I read:
1. Potassium Chloride is used as a fertilizer.
2. A lot.
3. Since it is used a lot, it is more environmentally friendly.
What??
I guess what astonishes me is the implication that you can fool people into believing that Potassium Chloride is more environmentally friendly. The PERCEPTION is what's important when you are trying to sell something, right? Never mind the reality. That was my first gut reaction, anyway. So okay, let's check the facts as discoverable on the internet, then...
First, the authors of the article are from a company called the "North American Salt Company". Oh goodness, what a coincidence - they sell Potassium Chloride! At about twice the price of Sodium Chloride, too. They do make this statement on their website:
Better For The Environment!
The key difference, which makes potassium chloride environmentally friendlier than salt, is that potassium itself is primarily a plant nutrient. Additionally, potassium is less damaging to soils and is less mobile than sodium. It also reduces the amount of chlorides discharged to septic or sewage systems by as much as 20%.
Digging a bit deeper, I found that everyone selling Potassium Chloride quotes the same 1966 (!) study that claims up to 20% less Chlorides discharged when using Potassium as compared to Sodium. I also found that every municipality that has trouble with Chlorides says No, using Potassium Chloride does not help. Seems a bit disingenuous to claim Potassium Chloride as "Environmentally Conscious". What it really does is cause slightly less damage (and costs twice as much, don't forget). I guess "less environmentally unfriendly" doesn't sell as well as "more environmentally friendly", right? Is Potassium Chloride technically more environmentally friendly that Sodium Chloride? I admit it, yes. Are both of them harmful enough to the environment to be banned in Municipalities with elevated chloride level issues? Yes.
Here's the pitch...you knew it was coming. Why even mess around with degrees of environmental unfriendliness when you can have the greenest water filtration/conditioning option of all - ECOsmarte. NO chlorides. NO brine discharge. Healthy minerals stay in the water. No hard water scaling. Do the Earth a favor - buy an ECOsmarte water system for your home...just in time for Earth Day!
