Giving up on SIGG – which bottle to choose

Everyone and their eco-friendly pooch has likely heard by now about the huge SIGG water bottle drama going down. Yes SIGG water bottles did have trace Bisphenol A (BPA) and while yeah the BPA is highly unlikely to leech into your water the company seemingly tried to cover it up which just might make other green consumers and possibly you want to think twice before handing over your money to the company. I’m not concerned that a SIGG  bottle will kill me with chemicals but I am totally peeved that they were sneaky and slick worded instead of open and honest.

Disposable plastic water bottles are not a good choice!

That said you still need a water bottle correct? Yup. Plastic water bottles are still no good; cost a lot of money, are made of plastic containing icky chemicals, and create an untold of amount of non-recycled trash. No worries though; SIGG water bottles are so not the only players in reusable water bottle town.

Basically when it comes to reusable water bottles you have some various choices:

• Aluminum water bottles – Aluminum is lightweight and usually bottles made of this are made of a single piece of aluminum. The downside is that aluminum bottles are almost always lined, and as we’ve seen, not always safely lined. Studies are not clear regarding if it could be a danger to drink from an unlined aluminum bottle (i.e. if the metal leeches into your water) and many people think aluminum imparts a bad taste into your water. In my opinion, stainless steel is a better choice.
• Stainless steel water bottles – Is safe enough to drink from without a liner; stainless steel naturally will never leech chemicals into your water, keeps your water cold, and is a tough material – i.e. won’t easily crack or break. This is my favorite type of water bottle and my Klean Kanteen, a stainless steel bottle, has worked well for a long time. Some people think that stainless steel will flavor your water with an odd taste, but I’ve never had this issue.
• Safe plastic water bottles – Plastic reusable bottles have many issues – one, many of these bottles will leech chemicals, they don’t tend to keep drinks cold, and also some are not as easily recycled. Safe plastic means not made out of polycarbonate; a plastic material you want to avoid because it’s been shown to leech BPA. You want to look for a non-leaching HDPE or LDPE, BPA free plastic bottle that you will actually recycle when you’re done with it. It’s tough to find a decent and safe plastic water bottle though, overall I’d go with stainless steel.
• Glass water bottles – Glass of course is breakable – not great for active people unless you get one with a holder. Perfect for around the house drinks though; totally safe and totally recyclable. There’s also a few glass-like water bottles, like the New Wave Enviro Water Bottles Made From Eastar Resin; but honestly, I haven’t researched these enough to say if it’s a good choice or not.

As of right now your safest and easiest choice is to choose 100% stainless steel. You won’t have liner issues, plastic issues, and you’ll have cool water. Coming up we’ll look at some various water bottle choices that aren’t SIGG.

[image via stock.xchng]