Some of us are fortunate enough to have drinking water available whenever we want it. We can ponder the minutiae of choices – the amount for optimum health, tap or filtered, filtered at home or elsewhere or how to carry it with us. For the most part, our cities have supplied us with drinkable water. We take this so much for granted, that we often choose not to take it, but to get the bottled version. Bottled water is convenient, certainly, and also assumed to be better, because we buy it. The beverage industry has been happy for us to trust them, and so they sell it to us in any way possible, the profit margins being what they are.
If there is any choice, however, choosing single use plastic water bottles is the wrong one. Producing them uses tons of oil and energy, and even more water. Transporting them uses more energy still. The results include less oil available for more important needs, increased global warming emissions, and unfathomable amounts of plastic sitting in landfills.
Americans buy close to thirty billion plastic water bottles annually (using oil that would run a million cars for that year). Less than one-quarter of all plastic bottles are recycled in the US. Those that are may be shipped to China (along with other trash of ours) to be recycled there, but when the price of oil drops, recycled plastic has less value. And plastic water bottles are not made into more water bottles, but “downcycled,” into other products like plastic lumber. It cannot be infinitely recycled.
Need another reason not to buy them? The safety of the water in the bottles is not guaranteed to be any better than your tap water, and after sitting in a warehouse or your car for a while, the water might be even more dangerous, due to the effects of heat on plastic leaching chemicals such as bisphenol-a (BPA, a known hormone disruptor) into the water.
What about reusable water bottles? Well, we now know that the safety of plastic is questionable. After selling millions of hip aluminum water bottles, the Swiss company Sigg admitted that there was BPA in the linings and subsequently changed them. Stainless steel seems to work well. However, one might consider the mining and production that goes into the millions of these that are currently being produced.
I like drinking from glass, and although it may not always be the best option, it’s cheap, easily washable, imparts no flavor and when the cap begins to rust – recyclable. You can buy a bottle of something that has a wide mouth, like Honest Tea, and after the tea, drink honest water.
Drink From Glass
Libre Tea
Glass is also a supportive and nonreactive medium to enjoy sipping tea that allows us to fully receive the medicinal benefits of freshly steeped herbs. In order to provide a tea glass that can handle hot water (and someone holding it), Libre Tea offers two different styles of tea glasses, both of which contain a removable stainless steel filter so loose leaf teas can be prepared in the glass (supporting the further reduction of waste by eschewing the need for tea bags). The glass and glass model has a glass interior and exterior for the purist, and will be available in the US in winter, 2010. The glass and poly option has a BPA-free polypropylene exterior to make it light-weight and portable. Try drinking your tea from a glass:libretea.com. –– FMT
Love Bottle
Based in San Francisco, Love Bottle Co. believes we could all use a little more love in our water. These stylish glass bottles are not only good for the earth, they’re also helping get clean water to people in need (a portion of proceeds go to Global Water). Enjoy their life-affirming designs or create one of your own. What will your love bottle say? lovebottle.net–– Kerri Blackstone
Be Truly You
Barbara Hirsch isn’t the only one who likes to drink out of glass bottles. When Heather McDowell and Ann Caiola founded Be Truly You in February, 2008, one of the items they wanted to make available to people was glass water bottles. In the spirit of reminding us that we truly are what we drink, the bottles come pre-printed with messages including peace, celebrate, love big, trust and bliss. They have a retro option that evokes the glass milk bottles once delivered on our doorstep, or a slim and sleek version. Drink with a clear conscience: betrulyyou.com. –– FMT
Barbara Hirsch owns a classical recording company (opus1mobile.com) in Santa Barbara, and besides wishing for the world to be a better place, manages to be relatively happy.
By Barbara Hirsch
