fender1

Only issue I had with my Klean Kanteen was that coming down a hill at 33mph I hit a bump and a full bottle flew out of my cage and was crushed by and SUV behind me. At $16 a pop it can be a pricey to lose vs. $3-$4 for a plastic one.

Bikepacker67

Yes, we must continue to make little plastic beads.
The Athabasca river be damned.

ghettocruiser

Is that a typo?

whatsmyname

An interesting article, although it's primarily about recycling rather than re-use. There's no reason why bottle sizes couldn't be standardized like in the old days so that bottlers would be able to use each other's bottles. Sacrificing brand-specific bottle design for the sake of reducing waste is probably a price worth paying imo.

Bikepacker67

Nope.

cerewa

I mostly use polycarbonate bottles, which I estimate will last me about as long as aluminum bottles. They're ridiculously durable.

Note that a lot of fuel is burned for every product made from aluminum.

I probably have enough plastic grocery bags to last me the rest of my life if I just re-use them until they're worn out. I try hard to avoid getting new ones by reusing them and by using my backpack.

Machka 

It keeps me employed, so I'm happy.


-----
But just wondering .... has anyone here looked into what it takes to make a stainless steel or aluminum bottles? You don't just pick them off the trees ... there's a lot of processing, pollution, and all the rest of it. Are they really an environmentally friendly option?

Bikepacker67

No, they're not.
Basically, we're flucked, because we've created this unsustainable house of cards.

Sorry to be such a downer, but it's the plain truth.

BTW, Machka, have you read up on some of the absolute devastation that oil companies are inflicting upon the "oil sands"? Do you know that cancer rates are through the roof? You can't eat the fish, you can't drink the water... WTF kind of world are we creating?

It ain't pretty, and it will lead to painful consequences.

Raiyn

At Save-A-Lot they do that by default, they don't even have the typical bagging equipment at the register. If you want bags you have to buy them off a hook located at the register and bag it yourself. If I'm not mistaken, (I've never bought one, but) I believe they're about $0.25 a piece

bigbenaugust 

So let's all just stop carrying bottles AT ALL and just hunt for drinking fountains along our commute routes.

Or we could all carry camel bladders like one of the posters above mentioned.

dobber

Indispensable for isolating and removing soiled toddler diapers. Super handy for picking up dog poop on the nightly sojourn. And very effective for disposing of dead squirrels.

dobber

The sky is falling, the sky is falling !!

Rotten Bastard

Don't forget that those plastic bags can be recycled, too. Most Whole Foods stores, just to name an example, have bins that you can throw them into for recycling.

slvoid

I tried that, the problem with elephant dung is that you have to carry a LOT of it to get relatively little water out. It's just not efficient.

KonradNYC

Machka, I see your point, but I do think steel bottles are a tad more environmentally friendly. The plastic bottles just don't last as long. What I mean by that is plastic tends to "last forever," but it can be really hard to clean if they get filthy/moldy so you will eventually be buying a new one and trashing the old one. Sure, you can recycle it (and you should) but metal (including alloys like steel) are more natural products and will rust and be reabsorbed into the earth more readily than plastic will decompose (although they both should be recycled!).

Anyway, originally my main point was that water just TASTES BETTER coming from a steel bottle. Everyone can argue all they want about what's more environmentally friendly...I'm going with the taste and health issue (no leaching with steel).

KonradNYC

That sucks...though, I've never lost a bottle yet, plastic or stainless. Maybe its your cages?

Machka 

And for lining your handlebar bag, and for keeping the spare clothing in your Carradice dry, and for keeping the sleeping bags in your pannier dry, and for separating your clean clothes from your used clothes in your other pannier, and for wrapping around your feet and over your helmet on rainy days, and for covering your Brooks ..........

chipcom 

Bad assumption.

chipcom 

I think we should learn from my ancestors...with all the road kill we cyclists see, we could easily make gut bladders to carry our water, rather then threaten the human race by using those 1yr plastic bottle.

Michel Gagnon

About the "bad taste" of plastic bottles:

When I buy one, I wash it with soap and water, then I open it and vent it for a few days. Then I put water and leave it there for a few days. Then I empty it and leave it to air dry. Smell and taste are gone.

Machka 

+1

Cave

Recent trip to Germany. Interesting differences from Australia and NAmerica:
- Bottle of water 70 euro cents; deposit on plastic or glass bottle, 15-25 cents. Guess what: people don't throw out recyclables.
- No plastic grocery bags at all. None. BYO or learn to juggle.
- Bikes everywhere. Looks like a uni campus, everywhere.

I don't think non-disposable plastic water bottles are a problem, but there are better ways of doing things than throwing out packaging every time you take a drink or go to the shops.

Raiyn

Hmmm, what are the Germans up to this time?.

½ kidding. ☺

KonradNYC

I do that too. It simply hasn't worked for me. The taste might be gone, but it comes back after I ride around in the heat. And I find that even freshly cleaned and vented plastic still has a "plastic" taste and I prefer the more neutral taste of steel (actually, I prefer glass, but I can't imagine that working too well on a bike ). To me, it's similar to drinking a beer directly from the glass bottle vs. from the aluminum can. The glass bottle just tastes better, but I'll "suffer" through an aluminum can if I have to...after all, it's still beer on the inside!

Anyway, everyone should use whatever works best for him/her. If you like plastic better, by all means use it. I prefer not to if I can help it. The OP was looking for some alternatives to plastic and stainless steel is what I use...just my 2 cents.

ItsJustMe

If you're worried about the taste of the water, you're not thirsty enough.
Jeez, what a bunch of... ah, shutting up now.

I have been using the same cheap plastic bottle that came for free on a cheap bike for about 4 years now. It doesn't look any different than when new other than a bit worn on the outside.

I also reuse "disposable" bottles for weeks at a time. What's the problem supposed to be with this? I think people are so used to sterilized everything that their bodies react badly to anything vaguely stale.