What Are Environmentally Sound Water Bottles?

As our planet's landfills quickly fill up with trash as a result of a wasteful society, more and more people are jumping on the "go green" bandwagon. Arguably, one of the most wasted products in our society is the water bottle. Investing in an environmentally sound wate bottle can save you money and help cut down on waste.

Avoid plastic

• Plastic is not only harmful to the environment, but can also be harmful to our bodies. Since plastic is widely available and cheap to produce and purchase, our landfills have consequently been filling up with plastic waste products. Plastic is made from petroleum, a non-renewable and mostly imported resource, and has been to known to contain the harmful chemical BPA. Some plastics take hundreds of years to decompose, and they emit toxic gases in the decomposition process.

Consider stainless steel

• A more environmentally sound option to a plastic water bottle is a stainless steel water bottle. These water bottles are readily available and are much better for the environment and your body. Stainless steel is one of the safest materials used for cooking, transporting or containing human food and beverages. A quality stainless steel water bottle can last for years. Stainless steel is highly durable. It can also withstand great temperature changes. The downsides to stainless steel are that it can give your water a metallic taste and it is usually produced overseas.

Reuse glass

• Glass water bottles are another environmentally sound alternative to plastic. While it takes more initial energy to create a glass bottle than a plastic bottle, glass can last considerably longer. Also, unlike stainless steel water bottles, glass water bottles can provide a more pure, cleaner taste. Local companies usually produce glass bottles than stainless steel or plastic. You can reuse most glass bottles, but you can't do that with plastics. The downside to glass water bottles is their low durability. They are much more fragile than plastic or stainless steel.

Bamboo bottles

• One of the newer trends in environmentally sound water bottles is the bamboo bottle. Bamboo is a highly renewable resource as it grows quickly and abundantly. Manufacturers harvest special bamboo plants, dry them, then shape and press it into a bottle form to produce an almost entirely green product. While some energy is required to power the kilns that dry out the bamboo and coat the bottles, the production of bamboo water bottles requires far less energy than plastic, glass or stainless steel.