Let's throw more fuel on the bottled water fire. NPR reports that a chemical called bisphenol A, or BPA, in polycarbonate bottles may—or may not—have health effects. Polycarbonate, brand name Lexan®, is used in the most well-known brand of hard plastic water bottles.
To be clear: now in question are the very same reusable alternatives to water in disposable plastic bottles… the ones we've been championing for quite some time.
So, we thought it might be a good time to revisit a few of our past posts on water bottle choices.
• SIGG bottles are aluminum with a coating inside that the manufacturer claims has been tested to have "0.0% leaching."
• Reader Philip tipped us off to the stainless steel Kleen Kanteen.
• At home, we prefer drinking from a glass; this carafe keeps water handy at bedside.
• And to get the clean water for that snazzy and safe new bottle, check the comments thread of this post.
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oy so no nalgenes, huh.
i have a kleen kanteen from greenfeet and as soon as the water warms up (there's one of those chilled water filter/cooler thinsg in my office) it tastes funny. nalgene = no taste and does not succumb to my clumsiness. i hope those sigg ones don't taste funny.
Whatever happened to thermoses with glass linings? Those were heavier than plastic bottles, but the glass didn't leach anything into the water.
on a (somewhat) related topic: can you do a thing on the use of PVC pipes in homes?
No! I love my nalgenes :(
Have a Sigg 1.5 liter I use every day. Ultra light and no funny taste.
I have a KleenKanteen, that i like a lot. The largest size sometimes makes funny noises, "farts", when you use the drinking nozzle.
Hope they work on that.
Another thing that I have seen, are Snapple bottles wrapped in Duct Tape. Reuse before recycle?
Sylvia
Perhaps the "aftertaste" is actually just the "taste" of metal? I haven't ever used a Kleen Kanteen, but it looks to be the same type of thing as a Sigg, which I have used (and love!).
I had heard about the leeching bit, especially after running it through the dishwasher it would continuously leech at higher levels, and I loved how clean my nalgene felt after the dishwasher. So I switched to Sigg.
Sylvia - does the duct tape render it un-recyclable then?? Not that you can't throw it into the recycling, but would it get weeded out at the recycling plant?
besides the leaching, don't bacterias build up in plastics because they can't be sterilized? stainless steel is the way. keeps the water colder, too.
The problem with the glass lined thermoses was that if you dropped them, the glass shattered inside. As a child, there was nothing worse than opening your (metal) lunchbox to find out that you now had "crunchy" milk :(
Take a walk on the wildside with a pickle jar water bottle.