How To Choose A Safe Reusable Water Bottle.
Aside from staying home and drinking tap water out of a washable glass, the best way to be “green” while on the go is choosing your water bottle wisely. From the lowly single-use-only plastic water bottle you can buy at your local gas station to the stainless steel and aluminum options, making the right choice is important in maintaining both your health and the health of the environment!
The worst kind of water bottle is the kind that you only use once – the PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottle that you find in grocery stores, gas stations, etc, that is used for water, soda and juice. This kind of plastic has been proven to leach DEHP (Bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate) after repeated use and is a probable carcinogen. They can also harbor bacterial growth inside any cracks and crevices inside the bottle, which cannot be too good for your health either!
Next to the regular old plastic bottles we see everywhere, probably the most common would be your typical bottle as seen here. These plastic bottles, commonly used by exercise buffs and campers, are made out of thermoplastic polymers that usually goes by the name polycarbonate. However, it’s not just water bottles that are made out of polycarbonate; CD’s, iPods, sunglasses, and computer shells are also made of the material. Thankfully though, we don’t normally chew on CD’s or computers because polycarbonates have been proven to leach BPA, a synthetic hormone that can mimic estrogen and cause prostate cancer. Even scarier is the fact that most baby bottles are made out of polycarbonate, and when you heat up milk in them to feed your baby, the BPA could be leaching in at an even higher rate than normal. Not good at all, if you ask me!
A much better option than either of the above two would be an aluminum water bottle. A big manufacturer of aluminum water bottles is Sigg (which you can get at Reusable Bags, where we got ours), which claims to make environmentally friendly products. While their older liner was questionable, the new liners are the BPA free EcoCare ones.
The best way to get your daily dose of water on the go, in my opinion, is a stainless steel reusable container. Kleen Kanteen is a large manufacturer of these type of bottles, and you can get them from Reusable Bags. They are made entirely out of stainless steel, which does not leach, is difficult to break or crack, and does not easily stain or interact with whatever product you are consuming. The water always tastes good out of it (at least ours does, and it is Los Angeles tap water!) and it keeps it reasonably cold for a little while when we go hiking or out in the sun. They don’t recommend using them for hot beverages, which is understandable – that’s what a thermos is for.
Ideally, the best way to drink water on the go would be an aluminum or stainless steel water bottle, as they seem to exhibit the least amount of health concerns out of all the choices. Add in the fact that they can be used over and over again with no degradation and do not need to be recycled each time you use one, they really are the “green” choice. And since upwards of 40% of bottled water is actually just tap water in disguise, buying it seems like not only a health risk due to the plastic leaching possibilities, but also a wallet risk due to wasting money on something you already have at home!
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- 12 Reasons To Stop Drinking Bottled Water.
- Greenwash Of The Week: Arrowhead Bottled Water Packaging.
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Erin – I agree, glass would be best. But it sure would be heavy for anyone to take hiking or biking, which is why I guess it has not taken off. Besides, dropping it would be a nightmare!
And yea, a lot of the stuff people find in their water is not from the container or the water itself, but rather the pipes in the house. Something to think about!
Buy a few Lipton Tea glass bottles, enjoy tea, remove label and adhesive, wash in dishwasher. Then refill over and over. If you drop it and it breaks, recycle the pieces and repeat.
Hikers, if you can’t stand another 8 ounces to carry with you, umm…wierd.
what about Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LDPE
Does anybody know whether or not the Contigo Auto-Seal bottle with carabiner clip is BPA-free? I really love the tight-closing seal, no drips or spillage and it’s easy to drink from. A 32oz bottle is $14.95 (Target or Bed Bath & Beyond).
Tracey – Supposedly, it is.
Does anybody know a good BPA-free bottle for kids that is inexpensive? My 3 and 5 year olds carry water bottles with them constantly, and right now we are doing the “re-use an old water bottle” method. I would love to buy some nice stainless steel water bottles, but my kids lose their water bottles about once a month (I swear they just disappear, like socks in the laundry) so that sounds kind of expensive. Glass is not a good option, for obvious reasons. Is there some kind of bottle out there that you could clip to a child so he wouldn’t lose it and would be lightweight enough that even a small child could carry it around?
ErinP – Reusable Bags has BPA-Free kids bottles from $4.95 and up, as does Amazon.com Good luck!
We buy bottles of Voss – nice glass bottles – for $2/bottle ($3 for the larger size). We fill them with filtered water and keep them in the refrigerator. The cap seals well enough so the water doesn’t start to taste bad even if it has been in the refrigerator for a few days or more. When we take the water out, even when it is warm, it has that fresh bottled taste. Sometimes we don’t have a water bottle with us and we have to go hunting for Voss (it isn’t always easy to find – try a specialty grocery store like Natures) but we probably have 15-20 bottles in our collection and some of them are months (maybe even a year) old.
Do old-fashioned thermos bottles still exist? Glass inside, metal/plastic outside AND insulated? Seems like a near-perfect solution to me other than maybe bulk.
To Sonic Charmer–you must either have lots of extra cash or don’t go to many places where you are a “captive audience” and get charged $4 for a 12oz drink.
They do, but they are hard to find (at least around here, Richard). I was looking for one to start using to make my own yogurt, and I still haven’t found one!
Wow. this is amazing. I work in a lab with polycarbonates, sillicates, hcs, etc etc. all minituare size micron to nano. Well got to say one thing. people are overreacting. no one has figured out how our body works, Yet. so sayin that probably that thing causes cancer and this thing causes that unless there is enough research with major publications dosent make sence. yes use less plastic or glass is better for environment. but even stainless steel can have disadvantages. do you know about phase diagrams, doping metals and grades of s.s. I dont, so I wont trust a ss over al or plastic. aluminium i wont trust as it rusts very easily anyways.
dont overreact as a matter of fact epoxy is not safe atall if mixed with water i guess. more than half of the products we consume are bad these days. but who knows whats good whats bad and what is just ugly!
thanks.
CamelBak makes a BPA free water bottle.
james! i totally agree! I had to get the little kid sigg bottle because it’s the only one i could find that had the sport bottle lid. ha i feel silly and it’s a bit smaller than i would like or for normal sized people for that matter but i guess it works for me. i’m sized a bit like a small person. haha.
amen to that wow.
What about “freezing” the classic “one time use” water bottles?
I’ve heard of people doing this to inhibit bacteria growth. When you’re done using it, shake most of the water out of the bottle, screw the cap on tight, and throw it in the freezer empty.
While I’m working, I like to keep a water bottle in my pocket since I’m constantly on the go, running around, talking to customers, associates, etc. – and my mouth does get dry, so I like carrying a water bottle around.
The Zephyr Hills “eco friendly Bottles” are perfect, since they fit right in my pants pocket
Now, a canteen on the other hand, wouldn’t quite fit I don’t think
Never heard of that one Adam, but it still entails buying the plastic bottles in the first place.
I wanted to point out that the PET single use water bottles are not sources of DEHP. They ARE very bad for the environment due to the plastic required to make them (from non-renewable petroleum), and bad for humans due to other chemicals that can leach out of the PET, but DEHP is not one of them. PET is polyethylene teraphthalate, while DEHP is di-ethylhexyl phthalate. A subtle yet definitive difference. I’m not sure about the toxicity involved with PET, but I do know that DEHP does not come from most single use plasic water bottles. It does however come from medical plastics and more importantly baby toys, products that are made with PVC, where they are a big concern. I don’t mean to imply that plastic water bottles are safe, just clarify that DEHP is not the reason to avoid them!
Anne – I am not questioning you, but several sources say that these plastics are a source. Do you have any more info you can share, would love to see it!
All your comments are so helpful! I love reading them all…so, what about Nalgene’s BPA free non-leaching plastic bottles on reusablebags.com? Don’t think anyone mentioned those?
Thanks for the help and happy water drinking!
Melissa- they are safer, but they are still plastic. If possible, you are probably better off getting anything other than plastic if only to reduce the amount of plastic we use!
Although many Americans use the plastic bottles it seems that everything besides global warming is going fine. Well that might be exactly what it looks like but your wrong. As you said the materials used to make these bottles can cause cancer. These bottles are popular and may be one of the bigger causes of cancer. I would prefer the kanteen bottles because not only are the safer they save you money. Instead of buying over hundreds of plastic bottles a year you could have one kanteen bottle for over four to five years.
David,
I am an environmental chemist and am researching phthalates them for my PhD work. When I first began, I thought that phthalates in one time use plastic bottles as well, but have learned otherwise. If you look at the paper cited in the article concerning DEHP (I have access to it because I’m at a university, others may not), it says that among the main sources of DEHP to adults is medical plastic (IV tubes, etc), and among children, plastic toys, but there is no mention of plastic water bottles. Like I said, I myself thought phthalates were in water bottles but have not found a single scientific paper that confirms this. If you have any science papers that do please let me know!
Like I said, plastic water bottles are made of PET, polyethylene terephthalate, not DEHP. These are two different compounds even though they sound the same. Biochemically speaking, small changes in structure (in this case, functional groups on opposite sides of the ring instead of side by side, for any organic chemists) can make large differences in how compounds behave in the body. Phthalates, including DEHP, are mostly found in PVC, recycling code 3, used in baby toys, iv tubes/bags, catheters, fragrances, the list goes on and on.
That being said, I do agree 100% with not using plastic water bottles!! Bad for the environment, and like I said earlier, there are concerns about other chemicals moving from the plastic into the water, but DEHP is not one of them. Great job advocating reusable water bottles! I have been trying to convince my friends, family and students I teach to get reusable waters and its definitely an uphill battle.
Hope that answers your question, sorry it was so long!
Ahh, didn’t realize so many typos, sorry