Which Type is Best? + Bonus ‼ Promo Code ‼
Hello Sprossians!
We hope that wherever you are in the world, that you are getting through this time no matter what your situation may be. Whether you are working, not working, lost your job, are home with family, live alone, whatever your situation is, we hope you are coping well and we send you all our love during this time.
Today we are going to be talking about Water Bottles. We thought it would be interesting to go into what type of reusable water bottle is the best to choose so everyone can stop using and buying those single-use plastic bottles that we see thrown around everywhere. Bonus! At the end of this blog post, we have a promo code for you to get a discount on our bottle recommendation! So keep reading to get that discount 🙂
So let’s jump right in.
Single Use Plastic: Single-use plastics, or disposable plastics, are used only once before they are thrown away or recycled. These items are things like plastic bags, straws, coffee stirrers, soda and water bottles, candy wrappers and most food packaging.
Worldwide, we produce 300 million TONS of plastic every year. Half of this is used for single use items. HALF. That is 150 million tons of plastic each year, that gets used and thrown away. To put that into perspective, that is nearly the equivalent to the weight of the ENTIRE human population.
Facts and Figures
There are over 30 types of plastic produced, and only about 7 of them are commonly accepted as recyclable.
The problem with these plastics is that they do not really break down, they break up. Over time, due to heat and sun exposure, they will break up into smaller pieces. Eventually, they get so small that they become what we call microplastics. These microplastics end up in the oceans and our drinking water, meaning that wildlife are eating them…as are we.
Not only do we ingest these microplastics through our drinking water, but also by the clothing we wear, as the majority of fast-fashion is made from a common plastic polyester. (Click here to read about Fast Fashion). We can also find these microplastics in our everyday products, such as our skincare routine products. This is a big reason why we try to buy vegan, organic and plastic free, and thankfully we can check the majority of products before we buy them by using this great app called CodeCheck (click here to read more about CodeCheck).
Plastic water bottles bought at the grocery store. Your 12 or 16 oz bottled water comes in this plastic bottle. After you are done drinking your water, odds are, you throw the bottle away. Now think about this: every single minute, 1 million plastic bottles are bought worldwide. Do me a favor now and just count to 60. By the time you reach 60, 1 million plastic bottles will have been purchased around the world. This number is expected to go up 20% by 2021 according to an article by The Guardian. That’s 1 million bottles that most of which will end up in landfills, slowly breaking up into tiny pieces that we will eventually consume.
Different Types
Okay, so knowing this very brief information about single use plastics, because trust me, there is SO much to learn and know about the dangers of single use plastics, let’s now go into what we can do to reduce this problem, specifically focusing on our water bottles.
Yes, it’s also very important to buy more consciously. Try to no longer purchase items that come in plastic packaging. Start being aware of the material that your clothing is made from. Buy more sustainably. This is a huge key to turning the state of our environment around.
As for water bottles, the focus of our post today, we have a few options:
- Reusable Plastic
- Glass
- Stainless Steel
Reusable Plastic
These water bottles are made from one of the following materials:
- HDPE (high density polyethelene)
- LDPE (low density polyethelene)
- Copolyester
- Polypropylene
Pros:
- Lightweight, Durable, Dishwasher-safe, BPA* free (most)
- Cheaper to produce making them more attractive to consumers
Cons:
- Very low recycling rate of these types of plastic
- Life cycle rather short
- Plastic leaches: this means that any chemicals that are found in the plastics can find their way into whatever the bottle is containing, meaning you are ingesting it as well.
It is for these cons that it is very important to pay attention to the companies you are buying these water bottles from. It is fantastic that you are willing to help the environment by being one less person buying single use plastic, however, please make sure that you are buying a legitimate product.
*BPA stands for Bisphenol A (industrial chemical used to make certain plastics)
Glass
Pros:
- Liquids taste better! This is because there is no lining inside a glass bottle that leaches odors and other unwanted flavors
- Glass bottles cannot leach like plastic (see above)
- Can withstand intense heat, cold and direct sunlight
- Can be used for any type of liquid, not just water (there will be no surprise flavors, colors or odors as it sits)
- Endlessly recyclable meaning it is kept out of landfills and reused for other products
Cons:
- The most obvious con is that glass is more fragile, however many companies sell their bottles with sleeves or are made from a more reinforced glass that is more durable.
- Tends to be more expensive
Stainless Steel
Pros:
- Does not leach
- Can withstand intense heat or cold
- Easy to clean and can be safely washed in high temperatures
- BPA free (mostly, make sure to read info from the company you purchase from)
- 100% recyclable! Every bit of it will be recycled. Every. Last. Bit.
- Lightweight and durable (great for day to day, hiking and traveling)
- Can store both hot and cold liquids and retain temperatures for long periods of time (especially when double insulated)
Cons:
- Depending on the quality of your bottle, it can sometimes give water a metallic taste. This is nothing dangerous to your health but is not always pleasant. You can avoid this by purchasing a higher quality stainless steel.
- Can dent when dropped. Stainless steel is durable, but can definitely dent on impact.
As a side note, the best option for selecting stainless steel water bottles is food grade #304 or 18/8, which means there are 18 percent chromium and 8 percent nickel.
So which one is best?
Any reusable water bottle is better than single use plastic bottles. Supporting that industry is also supporting the harm of the environment and the harm to our oceans, rivers, lakes and drinking water.
I personally would no longer purchase the reusable plastic water bottles, because they are still not completely recyclable, they don’t hold temperature very well, they can leach chemicals, odors and sometimes change the taste of the liquid inside them. Their life span is also not nearly as long as the others.
For me, it is a toss up between glass and stainless steel. I think that both options have their benefits, and you just have to decide which one best fits your needs.
If you are looking for something that you can use for both hot and cold liquids, I would consider getting stainless steel, and better yet, an insulated stainless steel for the extra insulation.
In the end, it all comes down to your own personal taste. I love both glass and stainless steel and am open to both options. However, I don’t think you can really go wrong either way you go between those two options.
We have an offer you can reuse!
If you are interested in a great Stainless Steel water bottle, we here at Spross highly recommend one from Salty Mind.
About the Bottle:
- 750 ml capacity
- Stainless steel with cork coating! This not only makes it gorgeous to look at, but cork is also water repellent, non-slip, antimicrobial and insensitive to the effects of certain temperatures! Cork does not absorb moisture (i.e. sweat/germs)
- Moveable handle making it easy to carry around or clip onto a backpack/bag
- Double Insulated! Your beverage keeps warm/hot for up to 12 hours and cold for up to 24 hours!
- Salty Mind produces in small quantities (they only produce what they can sell)
- Zero plastic packaging
But even better than all that, when you buy a bottle from Salty Mind, you are doing something great for the Earth! How?
Salty Mind wants to protect our world’s oceans. That’s why they donate a percentage of their profits to a marine project every quarter. This year, they planted corals in the oceans with the help of the Coral Gardeners project.
If you use our promo code, you can get 5% off one of their bottles now!
You can click here to purchase your own and use code spross5OFF to get your discount!
We hope that this post helped you to decide what type of water bottle is best for you, but we also hope that it opened your eyes a little to just how important it is to stop buying single use plastic water bottles for your water. We don’t want you to drink plastic and I am pretty sure that you don’t want to be drinking plastic either. So for your health and for our beautiful oceans, lakes and rivers (and all the wildlife that call those places home), please consider buying yourself a reusable water bottle.
Please leave us a comment and share this post with your friends. You can also follow us on Instagram @sproutedconsciousness. Until next time 😊
Good Day!! Thanks a lot for sharing your article with us.