My Beloved Water Bottle
How picking the right water bottle can make a big difference
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I’ve been writing a lot lately about trying to shift from disposable items to reusable items as much as possible. One thing that I’ve learned about making any change in life is that replacements for old ways are required for a change to stick. It’s very hard to simply stop doing something unless there’s something else there to take its place.
For those of you who like the idea of cutting down on the single use items you’re using, I thought I would share one simple place to get started today- finding a good reusable water bottle and using it regularly.
For more than a decade, I’ve been carrying stainless steel water bottles with me, greatly reducing my reliance on single-use plastic water bottles. I’ve had maybe four different water bottles during that time, and I’ve found that there are certain characteristics about water bottles that make them more useful, which means they may actually reduce the waste of single use plastics rather than just sit in a cupboard.
Before I get to my story, I think it’s worth pointing out that filling a reusable water bottle with tap water is generally safe in the United States, and I am comfortable filling my water bottle at any water fountain, soda machine, or even in places like the bathroom faucet in a hotel room. While the EPA is charged with regulating the quality of tap water from public sources (private wells are excluded from regulation), there are studies that find tap water containing arsenic, lead, and PFAS, known as a forever chemicals.
This is concerning and may give one pause about drinking tap water, but it’s worth noting that many bottled water brands have also been shown to contain similar chemicals, including PFAS.
In fact, many brands of bottled water are simply filtered tap water. I live down the street from a bottling plant that packages the same drinking water that’s in my pipes, filters it, and sells it as bottled water. I have a water filter installed at my house, so in my case, I can pay pennies for my own tap water, or a dollar or more for the same water in a single use plastic bottle. The image of purity or distinction that comes from purchasing bottled water is often just a marketing gimmick.
While bottled water can often seem convenient, it is also more expensive than tap water and generates a lot of waste. With a good reusable water bottle, those concerns can be minimized.
There were a few characteristics that were important to me when selecting a good water bottle, many of which I learned through trial and error with other bottles that didn’t quite fit my needs. After trying a BPA free plastic bottle, I knew that I wanted stainless steel. Steel bottles are more durable and they don’t leave any kind of plastic aftertaste.
I used to use an uninsulated steel bottle, but quickly learned that it didn’t keep water cold on warm days. I also used to use bottles where the cap threaded into the neck of the bottle, but it left the drinking surface exposed at all times.
This wasn't a huge deal in the car or at my desk at work, where I could be careful not to let the mouth part touch other things. But it was problematic when traveling. Empty water bottles are allowed to be taken through airport security and filled within the terminal. I used to do this, but it meant that I couldn’t put my water bottle into my backpack or the seatback pocket on a plane without contaminating the drinking surface. I would wind up filling the bottle once at the airport, then lugging an empty bottle with me for an entire trip because I had no easy way to wash it.
Because of this experience, I needed a water bottle where the cap covered the drinking area and allowed me to carry the bottle anywhere without worrying about contamination.
With all of that trial and error out of the way, I opted maybe four or five years ago to buy a Hydro Flask 20 ounce water bottle with a screw on cap. This water bottle has not left my side since purchasing it and it is nearly perfect.
The 20 ounce is skinny enough to fit in my car’s cup holder with ease (larger capacity Hydro Flasks have a wide diameter, which don’t fit in most cup holders). This size also fits into a water bottle pocket on my backpack.
The wider mouth makes getting inside for cleaning very easy. I wash mine every day at home, but on trips, I can go 2-3 days without washing it and not notice any smell or taste changes. It fits under soda fountains for filling with water and ice and also can be used at any water bottle refill stations.
This summer, it accompanied us to every Walt Disney World theme park and kept us cool and hydrated throughout the day. It’s also what I use on every RV trip, plane trip, or even just when I’m sitting at my desk while working from home.
I like Hydro Flask because they come in bold colors too. I chose a bright blue, which is easy to spot when I set it down on a video shoot set. I also started adding stickers to mine about two years ago, and now have an eclectic mix of stickers from my travels, that support cool businesses, and that support local farms.
The only hesitation I have about my Hydro Flask is that it is made in China. Having used it for four or five years, I hope that the number of single use plastic bottles that I have used offsets any negative environmental or labor impacts of the manufacturing process. I would love to buy a U.S.A. made water bottle, but as of now, I have not found one that checks as many boxes as my Hydro Flask.
Hydro Flasks are for sale on Amazon, they are on the shelf at many Whole Foods Markets (and in my local store, at least, they are heavily discounted during the month of August), and they can also be ordered directly from Hydro Flask. If ordering directly, there’s the option to fully customize the colors of the bottle and cap and even have a name or message printed on the bottle.
Since I bought mine a few years ago, they have since released a 24 ounce bottle which also fits in standard cup holders but is slightly taller. I have been tempted to upgrade mine, but will likely keep the one I have for a few years longer. But if I were purchasing brand new, I might opt for the larger one instead, although I prefer the screw on cap to the straw cap that’s included.
If you’re interested in learning more about single use products
of wrote an amazing newsletter piece adapted from his live presentation last week that’s worth a read. In it, Alter traces the history of single use packaging and how the recycling industry has been a giant smokescreen to take the responsibility away from industry for producing so much waste and instead make it a consumer problem.The truth is very little of the items that we sort for recycling ever become new products, but the act of recycling makes us less aware of how much waste we are truly making. It’s against this backdrop that the advice of reduce, reuse, recycle makes more sense. Recycling should be a last resort when the first two methods have failed, not an excuse to consume as much as possible.
Ginger Zee, the ABC meteorologist who I interviewed on the podcast a few years ago, recently posted on Instagram about this idea as well. We should be reducing our plastic waste by reusing what we can, rather than relying on recycling.
American society has been built on consumption, convenience, and single use products meant to be discarded. If you’re looking to push back against these systems, starting with a high quality reusable water bottle with features that make it useful is a good first step.
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Related Reading
If you’ve missed past issues of this newsletter, they are available to read here.
An alternative for water bottles (and many other containers!) to consider is Miir (https://www.miir.com/pages/responsibility). They are certified as climate neutral, 1% for the planet, Force for Good, and Evergreen. Even though their products are also made in China, they publish their entire product chain partners in the page I linked to. I have no connection to Miri, but am just a user of their products.
A tip I saw recently for cleaning things like water bottles while traveling is to cut a standard kitchen sponge into smaller pieces, put in a reusable container, squirt dish soap all over them, let dry, then seal. All you have to do then is get the little piece of sponge wet and you can wash your water bottle. Take enough sponge pieces for each day you are traveling and your water bottle can stay nice and clean.