Water Bottles

It’s good to drink plenty of water. We all know this but in the drinking stakes, some of us do better than others. The hue of that stuff that tinkles into the bowl and the frequency of the said tinkling, will give you a good indication of your hydration habits and how hard your kidneys are working! Now, outputs are important and should not be overlooked, but currently, I’m interested in the input end of things…
In Sweden and in Australia we are privileged to have some of the best drinking water available at the mere turn of a tap. It’s clean, fresh and pretty much endless, despite water storage levels in Victoria being at an all time low because of our protracted drought.

With such good quality water available for free, I find myself wondering why we buy the stuff. We buy it in such prodigious quantities that bottled water sales in the USA have outstripped sales of beer. We drink it from PET bottles made from fossil fuels – mostly petroleum and natural gas. We quaff it at greatly inflated prices compared to the stuff you can get at your local kitchen sink. We recklessly quench our thirst with water that uses 2-3 times more than the amount we've imbibed just to produce it! The energy cost of manufacturing, bottling, sealing, labeling, refrigerating and transportating it, makes the environmental impact of our bottled water nothing short of horrendous.

And then there’s Bisphenol A (BPA), a key ingredient of your plastic bottle. Studies suggest a raft of possible health issues related to BPA consumption. Whilst causal links are tenuous at best, there’s enough written about BPA to throw the anxiety-switch in your brain, leaving you obsessing about worst-case health scenarios and untimely death! So with environmental destruction and life-threatening side effects, your good-ole bottled water isn’t looking so good any more.

Ok, ok, I know you’re a good citizen and you recycle. I’m sure this mediates some of the guilt you feel for your rampant aqueous consumerism. In Stockholm you’ll be traipsing down the to local recycling station with your overladen ICA or COOP bags full of glass and cardboard and plastic, to feed the big green bin-monsters in the street with their preferred substances. In Australia, you’ll be turfing your PET bottles into your own personal recycling bin in your driveway at home.

Good for you. Keep it up, but think twice.

If you have your own refillable water bottle, you will be making a difference. It’s also fun! Your local gym will undoubtedly have their own branded version as will your cycle store, your football team and your favourite holiday destination. You can choose from a range of retro and designer styles if you go for the big Swiss band. You can choose screw top or pop top…the options for creative self-expression are endless.

In Sweden the contents of our water bottles froze one day when we were skating on Edsviken. I was absolutely amazed by this incredibly cold and unAustralian phenomenon. Here in the antipodes, we have innocuous looking white water bottles that turn shocking shades of purple according to the level of UV to which they’re exposed. For those of you who know the jingle, the purpose of these chameleon bottles is to remind us to “slip on a shirt, slop on some sunscreen or slap on a hat!”

So whatever your style, impress your colleagues at work, save the planet, be kinder to your kidneys, feel quietly virtuous, save money…and make a re-usable bottle your friend today.


Note: For those of you interested in a more scholarly exposé on the energy required to produce bottled water, see the Institute of Physics.