I was hugely disappointed to hear last month that Sigg Water Bottles produced before August 2008 were made with a liner that includes bad, bad, bad BPA. Many people, including me, bought Sigg bottles to replace other BPA/nasty chemical leaching bottles in our possession.

Read more of this story »

Born out of the movement to eliminate plastic water bottles, the SafeSporter’s limited plastic parts do not contain BPA or phthalates.

Why go with stainless steel bottles from Kid Basix when so many BPA-free plastic bottles are available now? We can give you 300 billion reasons. That’s the approximate number of plastic water bottles discarded around the world every year. Enough to power 12 million cars for an entire year. And that’s just the water bottles! It doesn’t include all the plastic bottles used for sodas, sports drinks, fruit juices and the like. All told, the plastic bottles we throw away each year would reach to the moon and back – 1500 times. So using reusable stainless steel bottles makes sense on every level: personal, local and global.

Read more of this story »

Over this last week we have learned that SIGG bottles manufactured before August 2008 (not 2009, as I mistakenly mentioned earlier) contained Bisphenol-A (BPA) in their liners. BPA is a chemical used in the manufacture of polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins and is part of a group of molecules known as endocrine disruptors.

Endocrine disruptors are defined by the National Institute of Health as

naturally occurring compounds or man-made chemicals that may interfere with the production or activity of hormones of the endocrine system leading to adverse health effects. Many of these chemicals have been linked with developmental, reproductive, neural, immune, and other problems in wildlife and laboratory animals. Some scientists think these chemicals also are adversely affecting human health in similar ways resulting in declined fertility and increased incidences or progression of some diseases including endometriosis and cancers.

Read more of this story »

On a recent (this past week) stroll up into the thin air of Mt. Whitney my hiking buddies and I discovered some things. While most hikers have courtesy and smarts to be as conscious as possible toward environmental stewardship it always happens where a few conventionally grown apples ruin it for everyone else. Case in point being at the last reliable water source (High Camp Tarn) before the final push up the 99 switchbacks to reach the summit what did we spy? A dazzling reflection of the various peaks? Yes. A plethora of discarded Mountain House packages resting on the floor of the tarn. You bet. Not only did these packages tarnish the beauty of the scenic watering hole but even forgetting esthetics, who wants to drink water from a polluted lake before a major climb?

Read more of this story »

New BioGreen water bottles are biodegradable, recyclable and reusable.

It is getting hard to keep track of all the containers you should and shouldn’t be eating and drinking out of, let alone what happens to the stuff when it gets thrown away or recycled. While the latest claims about stainless steel water bottles being generally better for you than plastic ones (some more dubious than others) are generally spot-on, you can’t squeeze stainless, and sometimes, you just gotta squeeze.

Filling that niche is a new BioGreen water bottles made by California Springs Water Bottles.

Read more of this story »

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always fantasized about having an algae bioreactor in my backyard. Instructables recently posted a video to help me do just that. The DIY algae photo-bioreactor is built from plastic water bottles, and churns out some beautiful green biofuel.

Read more of this story »

Motorola has announced plans to launch the world’s first completely carbon neutral mobile phone, at CES 2009 in Las Vegas.

The shell of the W233 Renew is made entirely of recycled water bottles, and will be available via T-Mobile within the next three months. The struggling cell phone manufacturer has also teamed up with CarbonFund.org to offset the energy used in the manufacture, distribution and operation of each phone throughout its lifetime.

Read more of this story »

I loathe plastic water bottles, but for some reason many otherwise rational people seem to love them. Fortunately, a company called Brandimage may save the day and reduce plastic waste with their paper bottle.

Read more of this story »

A number of clients and readers have asked us about ideas for eco-friendly customer gifts and I wanted to write a couple of posts talking about items that have done well in the past for clients or that are new for this year and doing well so far.

I also wanted to break these articles into categories so this blog will cover PET (yes items made from recycled water bottles for the holidays). PET may be a boring material but it is being used in some neat products.

1) Eco 100% Recycled Owl Laptop Sleeve - Made from 100% post-consumer recycled material (product label affirms this claim), holding a standard 15″ laptop and with a very clean line design, these bags have been very popular as both employee and customer gifts. At about $15 including a one color imprint of your logo or message, these bags are very popular with hip eco companies and road warriors. The gift is also practical, for one thing it makes accessing your laptop at the airport a heck of a lot easier, and of course it does provide basic protection from bumps, nicks and

Read more of this story »

Everyone knows that the plastic bottles for packaged water are bad for the environment and bad for your health. The promotional items industry knew this as well and seized on this to promote the reusable plastic bottles ubiquitous in gyms and office promotions.

Water bottles became big business for us. Then came the Bisphenol A scare.

Overnight plastic bottles were out. If you are in the business of promotions and brand management it really did not matter if the plastic water bottle your client had purchased in the past was made with Bisphenol A or not. All water bottles got painted with the same brush.

So what happened?

Well basically overnight, and industry wide, the plastic water bottle orders became steel or aluminum water bottle orders. And then - due to the rush, the tragic earthquake in China which was one of the main manufacturing areas for these items, and basic distribution issues - the aluminum water bottles sold out.

Read more of this story »

I know. I know. We actually all know the reasons not to do this. But my thirst won out and I was left with a happy sigh and an empty bottle.

To give myself a little bit of redemption, I gladly toted the empty bottle around for the rest of the day with all intentions for bringing it home, destined for the recycle bin. On my return home, I instead left it on my desk and contemplated the water bottle’s next life as a possible craft.

Read more of this story »

The reduction in the use of plastic bottles in our lives is an aim I think most of us share. It’s all too easy to pick up a new plastic bottle of water rather than carrying your own, over 100m in the US alone are ending up in landfills every day. There are a few schools of thought, using aluminum bottles, steel bottles or corn based biodegradable plastic bottles (with or without a water filter). This review looks at one of those choices, a SIGG aluminum water bottle.

It’s an aluminum bottle. That’s pretty much it, it carries about 1 litre of liquid and does a fine job of it. At about 22.5cm (9 inches) in height, not including the cap (more about them in a minute) it’s a decent size to use on a walk, picnic, or gym, and just about fits in an average car cup holder. The bottles are fully recyclable at the end of their, probably long, life.

Who are SIGG? SIGG Switzerland dates back to 1908 when metal processing specialist Ferdinand Sigg established an aluminum product factory about 30 kilometers outside of Zurich. Still manufactured in Switzerland, they’ve been called the world’s toughest water bottles. Available in 144 designs with 22 bottle lids, some of the bottles are also displayed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. SIGG is also a member of 1% For The Planet - donating 1% of all sales to helping to preserve our environment.

Read more of this story »