We rushed out to buy all manner of water bottles but now the dust has settled a bit, which types were any good? Which ones last, which ones are green and which ones were a bit of a con?
Here is a quick guide to some of the more common types of reusable bottle that we have all had time to reflect on.
Not So Eco
These types of plastic water bottles work fine for a few weeks but do not last long enough to be eco, they will simply break, or get so tatty you won’t want to use it. Avoid plastic bottles if you can!
Eco Choices
There are also a lot of glass options, this may well be a good choice in terms of sustainability but once they break, they are immediate waste and it is important to see if the glass can be recycled. There are bamboo bottles which are sustainably made and even sugar cane bottles. The bottom line here is to look for bottles that will either biodegrade or last for a very long time as a functional bottle.
The Stupid?
This app synced water bottle hooks up with a fitness app and monitors the amount of exercise you do, it then tells you how much water to drink. Yes, the bottle tells you when and how much to drink. While the idea is quite cool the reality is that the bottle has a battery which includes all sorts of minerals that have been strip mined, it has a rubber plastic coating and it costs £60! For most owners this will be used for a month and the battery will run down, never to be charged again and it will gather dust until it goes in the landfill. There are lots of other bottles that are made from a combination of plastics and other materials that mean they can be recycled, others are just incredibly expensive for no reason.
The key here is to find something long lasting, simple and not made of plastic. It needs to be able to be dropped, it needs to avoid rubber nozzles that get split and gunked up, it just needs to be a bottle with a lid you can remove. The colour and shape are up to you!
This is a collaborative post