In the time since I did my video on reusable water bottles, new, safe and innovative products have been coming out all the time. Some things that don’t change are the reasons not to use single use PET plastic water bottles. (Abbreviated as PET, polyethylene terephthalate is a thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family. It is used in synthetic fibers, beverage, food, and other liquid containers. )
1. Three million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year.
2. More than 80% of all water bottles are not recycled and end up in landfills.
3. Plastic is made from petroleum, aka oil, which is not a renewable.
4. The most recent alarm is the talk of a polycarbonate known as bisphenol A or BPA
There is quite a lot of evidence suggesting that BPA is a toxin. Now we have “BPA-free.” So tell me, what did they replace bisphenol A with? It depends on the product and the company. It could be a “co polyester” plastic with the trade name Tritan. An oleoresinous c-enamel lining, a PET film lamination. “BPA-free” has been accepted as safe, but let’s not be so sure. Whatever the substitute is, there are many chemicals in all sorts of plastic that act just like BPA. Just like in my video when I talk about the aluminum bottle lining and that what it is made of has not been identified, neither has Tritan. Although most single use plastic water bottles do not contain BPA, they do however leach DEHA, another probable carcinogen. And how about how bad the water can taste sometimes? I for sure can tell if that plastic water bottle has been through different temperatures. It has that plastic-y (is that a word?) taste. Does this all sound like too much? I’ll simplify…plastic bad…plastic alternatives…good
I would choose stainless steel over aluminum, but I think glass is the winner. You could choose stainless steel, but sometimes they are hard to see inside, which makes it hard to clean and harder to see what you’re drinking. It might also give you a metal taste. Nowadays there are quite a few glass options. My first was Aquasana. It slipped right out of its cozy and shattered in a parking lot. Besides that the water didn’t stay fresh. If I didn’t finish it that day it tended to smell moldy. I really enjoy the 22oz bottle from Lifefactory. www.lifefactory.com. It has a wide mouth for easy filling and cleaning and a very tight silicone sleeve, so your bottle can’t slip out. Best of all the water and the bottle never taste or smell moldy. My only request is that they come out with a larger one than 22 oz for those hot days, long days away from home or heavy workouts. Let’s all raise our glass!
A couple others out there are…
www.bamboobottleco.com
www.bottlesup.com
www.takeyausa.com
www.anchorhocking.com They make a double wall insulated bottle for hot or cold.
http://www.ecocouncil.dk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1699:can-bisphenol-a-be-replaced&catid
http://www.livescience.com/13209-bpa-free-plastics-bottles-safety-ria.html
http://www.nrdc.org/thisgreenlife/0902.asp
http://www.eastman.com/Markets/InfantCare/Pages/Advantages.aspx
http://www.oeconline.org/our-work/healthier-lives/tinyfootprints/toxic-prevention/safer-alternatives-to-bisphenol-
