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Alternative to Plastic Water Bottle

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Old 06-26-07 | 07:30 AM
  #51  
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Originally Posted by sdime
I just learned how damaging to the environment water bottles are. It's so bad that so governments are banning 'em. Has anyone found an alternative for the bottle cage? Something like aluminum or stainless steel, maybe.

https://www.treehugger.com/files/2007...rancisco_m.php

Those plastic bags from grocery stores are pretty bad too. I'll have to ask for paper from now on.
Yes, there are several companies that make aluminum water bottles. You can find them at REI and Sierra Trading Post. Sig is one manufacturer.

You don't have to ask for paper bags either. Use reusable bags. Many grocery stores sell the bags now and even give you a credit for using them. Fresh Fields/Whole Foods sells them and gives you $0.15 per bag you use. They are lightweight, and take almost no room in your car or bag.

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Old 06-26-07 | 07:39 AM
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Originally Posted by noisebeam
Bottom line is that whether you use one water bottle per year or for 5 or 10 years, thats not the problem. Its the yahoos who buy 1-3 per day and toss them that is the problem. 500+ per year!

Al

Who buys 1-3 water bottles a day? Are you talking about "bottled water" as oppossed to the plastic bottles designed to carry water specifically for bicycles?
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Old 06-26-07 | 07:40 AM
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Originally Posted by jeff-o
Seriously? That's incredible. My city has had a "blue box" recycling program in place for over 20 years!!

Welcome to Tex-ass.
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Old 06-26-07 | 08:06 AM
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Originally Posted by skanking biker
Who buys 1-3 water bottles a day? Are you talking about "bottled water" as oppossed to the plastic bottles designed to carry water specifically for bicycles?

Well, the link in his first post was talking about single-serving bottled water - which generally has nothing to do with cycling.
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Old 06-26-07 | 08:09 AM
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Originally Posted by slvoid
Real men use uncoated fuel bottles with raw aluminium. I'm sorry, what were we talking about?
real men carry a rag to sop up their sweat and ring it out in their mouths, but who wants to be a real man?
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Old 06-26-07 | 08:48 AM
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Headline should read SF mayor Newsom wastes helicopter fuel while checking to make sure the lake is still there.
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Old 06-26-07 | 08:49 AM
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I tried an aluminum bottle and hated it. I wanted to get away from the plastic tasting water.

Two issues sent me back to my old reliable plastic bottles.
1] Metal bottle dont collapse when you drink from them so you can not get much water out in one shot. The best way to drink was to blow into the bottle and drink from the resulting pressure in the bottle. Pretty dysfunctional.

2] They rattle in the bottle cages. Not a little bit, but every grain in the road sent out noise from the bottle. Tried bending cages and eveything else to no avail. In the end, this is why I ditched them.

I've had my current 2 plastic bottles for 2 or 3 years so I think the enviro impact is pretty much nil.
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Old 06-26-07 | 08:53 AM
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Originally Posted by le brad
real men carry a rag to sop up their sweat and ring it out in their mouths, but who wants to be a real man?
Bear Grylls sucked water from elephant dung on Man vs Wild. Now that is manly.
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Old 06-26-07 | 09:13 AM
  #59  
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I've been using klean kanteen for 6 years now, and aside from a few small dents, this is by far the single greatest water bottle created. I love how clean tasting the water is. I wash my bottles once a week in the dishwasher and the water always tastes clean. Even if the bottle sits in your car heats up and then cools back down, there are no strange plasticy tastes. I have a 27 oz in my bottle holder on my bike and a 40oz in my pack, and these bottles should last a lifetime.

https://www.kleankanteen.com/2product...teen-27oz.html
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Old 06-26-07 | 09:17 AM
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Originally Posted by Phantoj
50¢ at Dollar Store with water. Just as refillable as any other water bottle. No odor; no off taste. Light and easy way to handle 1.5 liter while riding.
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Old 06-26-07 | 09:19 AM
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Originally Posted by MyPC8MyBrain
I tried an aluminum bottle and hated it. I wanted to get away from the plastic tasting water.

Two issues sent me back to my old reliable plastic bottles.
1] Metal bottle dont collapse when you drink from them so you can not get much water out in one shot. The best way to drink was to blow into the bottle and drink from the resulting pressure in the bottle. Pretty dysfunctional.

2] They rattle in the bottle cages. Not a little bit, but every grain in the road sent out noise from the bottle. Tried bending cages and eveything else to no avail. In the end, this is why I ditched them.

I've had my current 2 plastic bottles for 2 or 3 years so I think the enviro impact is pretty much nil.
I've stopped the rattling with two fat rubber bands tied to the bottle holder and around the frame. True, the bottles don't collapse, but on my Klean Kanteen spout, there is a hole in the cap to allow the pressure to be release and a very generously sized spout. I actually get more water out of my bottle faster than with those plastic squeeze bottles with a small hole.
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Old 06-26-07 | 09:49 AM
  #62  
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Originally Posted by Raiyn

If you REALLY want to make an impact you can do what we do in my household.

We do a larger portion of our shopping at Save-A-Lot they actually CHARGE for bags there, but many of the item displays are done in their shipping boxes which makes them available to the consumer for free as well the stockers actually bring the boxes up to the front of the building near the check out lines where the consumer is also allowed to rummage to find an appropriate size box. The boxes that we've used have all been recycled.

In addition, we also bring our own cloth bags to the stores and/ or tell the cashier not to bag our items. The few plastic bags that we DO get are reused as garbage can liners and as receptacles for used cat litter.

Wholeheartedly agree. I tell the cashier to put stuff back in the cart when it's rung up. Then I take the cart out to my bike and load up the panniers and/or duffel bag. We also re-use plastic grocery sacks for similar purposes as you do, when we get them.
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Old 06-26-07 | 10:06 AM
  #63  
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Originally Posted by sdime
Let's assume an average cyclist use one plastic bottle per year and an average cyclist cycle for 40 years. That's forty bottles per cyclist. Take that and times by total number of cyclists in the world. I'll guess that's a huge number. Besides, these bottles take hundreds of years to decompose. I prefer to use zero plastic bottle.
Me too. I carry all my water in my hands, but that means I have to make a lot of stops on my rides. I am saving up for a water bag made from a camel's udder. TOTALLY biodegradable!
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Old 06-26-07 | 10:06 AM
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Originally Posted by JeffS
Yes, but they don't recycle into more bottles. They only "recycle" down, into less-desirable products. The supply of material exceeds demand at this point, and probably always will.
Actually, I think the industry does allow for a certain percentage of recycled plastic to be used in new plastic bottle manufacture. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I saw that on a "How It's Made" episode about plastic container manufacture on the Science Channel.
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Old 06-26-07 | 10:10 AM
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Originally Posted by Machka
On the issue of single use bottles ... don't most people recycle them? There are recycling bins for them EVERYWHERE! Unless I simply cannot locate a recycling bin (very rare), I toss all my recyclable bottles, cans, paper, etc. into those big blue bins.
On my rides around here looks like most people "Recycle" them to the roadside.
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Old 06-26-07 | 10:17 AM
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Patagonia makes a couple of different fleece jackets out of recycled plastic bottles.
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Old 06-26-07 | 10:19 AM
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Meh - this whole thread is backwards. Denmark, Germany etc have water that comes in thick plastic bottles that are cleaned and reused multiple times. What's the point in recycling something that could be reused? The deposit on plastic bottles in the US (even in those states that have them) is way too low, and supermarkets get away with putting recycling machines that function 2 hours away down piss-soaked alleys. As a result, taking bottles back for the deposit in the US is pretty much the shameful reserve of vagrants and the terminally tight-fisted (I'm the latter).

A 25c deposit on every bottle would drastically reduce waste/litter, and improve re-use. Of course, there's zero political support for it...
Originally Posted by JR97
Bear Grylls sucked water from elephant dung on Man vs Wild. Now that is manly.
I get cow poo delivered to my desk for 11am break...
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Old 06-26-07 | 10:26 AM
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Originally Posted by Cyclon
Patagonia makes a couple of different fleece jackets out of recycled plastic bottles.
Otherwise known as "polar fleece."
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Old 06-26-07 | 10:27 AM
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Originally Posted by sdime
Those plastic bags from grocery stores are pretty bad too.
That's for sure! Those plastic bags are almost worthless.

The last time I was buying a gallon of milk, the cashier asked me "Do you want you milk in a bag?" I said "Heck No! Leave it in the jug. It'll leak out of the bag."

She looked at me kinda funny but I'm used to that.
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Old 06-26-07 | 10:33 AM
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since we're talking green

Originally Posted by Cyclon
Patagonia makes a couple of different fleece jackets out of recycled plastic bottles.
actually they use pcr content in all of their fleece. and they use all of the scraps to make kids stuff. their corporate headquarters fills two dumpsters with trash in an entire year. it's an amazingly green setup.

and as a plug for their organic cotton...it takes nearly 3lbs of pesticides to grow enough cotton to make a single t-shirt. cotton grown for clothing is the single biggest user of pesticide in the world.
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Old 06-26-07 | 12:11 PM
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Originally Posted by skanking biker
Who buys 1-3 water bottles a day? Are you talking about "bottled water" as oppossed to the plastic bottles designed to carry water specifically for bicycles?
In the context of the preceeding discusion I think that was pretty obvious.

Al
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Old 06-26-07 | 12:14 PM
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Originally Posted by whatsmyname
A 25c deposit on every bottle would drastically reduce waste/litter, and improve re-use. Of course, there's zero political support for it
I'd suggest reading this article:
NYT Magazine: The Unintended Consequences of Hyperhydration

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Old 06-26-07 | 12:29 PM
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Originally Posted by littlewaywelt
actually they use pcr content in all of their fleece. and they use all of the scraps to make kids stuff. their corporate headquarters fills two dumpsters with trash in an entire year. it's an amazingly green setup.
Filling just two dumpsters in an entire year? That's impressive.

Welp, I have a Patagonia fleece jacket which I had for a couple years and I'm sure I'll continue to get many more years of service out of it.
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Old 06-26-07 | 12:31 PM
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Originally Posted by sdime
Let's assume an average cyclist use one plastic bottle per year and an average cyclist cycle for 40 years. That's forty bottles per cyclist. Take that and times by total number of cyclists in the world. I'll guess that's a huge number. Besides, these bottles take hundreds of years to decompose. I prefer to use zero plastic bottle.

Regarding the grocery bags, I have thought about bringing my own cloth bags. I might try that soon. We've also stopped using plastic can liners, but it's been quite nasty. Garbage men probably don't like that idea either. I don't know how much longer that'll last.
That's why I carry watermelon slices. They're bio-degradable and the act of throwing them out creates a new supply
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Old 06-26-07 | 12:43 PM
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Originally Posted by crue0001
I've stopped the rattling with two fat rubber bands tied to the bottle holder and around the frame. True, the bottles don't collapse, but on my Klean Kanteen spout, there is a hole in the cap to allow the pressure to be release and a very generously sized spout. I actually get more water out of my bottle faster than with those plastic squeeze bottles with a small hole.
I'm in total agreement with you. Everyone's talking about these aluminum bottles verses plastic bottles. Just get a stainless steel Klean Kanteen. Mine don't rattle at all and I use a standard metal bottle cage. However, if you're worried it's gonna rattle, Klean Kanteen makes a plastic bottle cage designed for the metal bottle.

Also, the water comes out just as fast as squeezing a plastic bottle, due to the suction valve in the cap. Plus, they look way better. If you're not a weight weenie and you want good tasting water, I don't see why you'd go with anything else.
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