I Have heard about 'sticks' to use in water bottles for away from home use (school/work) as well. Anything there?

Yes, these do work well but we typically recommend a "pitcher" product - either the Waterman Pitcher or the Phresh pitcher.  These can be used with regular unfiltered tap water and both effectively eliminate bacteria, chlorine and other chemicals as well as VOC's.  The Waterman Portable Pitcher sells right now for $55 and the Phresh Pitcher for $159.

The Phresh Pitcher holds more water but the replacement filters are more expensive.

The Waterman holds about 16 ounces (a typical tall glass of water) and is much  more portable.  I use the Waterman because I like the size for travel.  Also, we have a customer who updates us almost on a weekly basis reporting PH levels of 10.0 and greater using a high-dollar PH meter.  These results are not typical but we are thrilled to hear this from him.  Were he not an employee of a chemical company with access to resources to check his results we would be a bit skeptical of his results.  To date he's ordered 4 Waterman Pitchers with replacement filters.