A Plea to Plastic Water Bottle Drinkers

If you’re still walking around with a disposable plastic water bottle, I’m sorry to break it to you but you’re being judged. The plastics crisis is being considered as serious as climate change and it’s common knowledge at this point that plastic is destroying the planet.

But one million plastic water bottles are still being purchased every minute, and this number keeps going up. Why did people even start drinking water out of plastic bottles in the first place? Let’s start at the beginning…

Mass production of plastic began in the 1950s, but has skyrocketed in the past decade. The Western world’s urban on-the-go culture birthed this insatiable desire for bottled water. This trend spread to China and the rest of Asia, landing us in the mess we’re in today. All because of a stupid trend. And this isn’t like an ill-fitting pair of bellbottoms. This trend will lead to the demise of our very planet. Our beautiful Earth we humans have had the luxury of calling ours for the past 200,000 years. With all its infinite beauty. Where we as humankind for the past 200,000 years have made love, created music, conquered space travel, invented the lightbulb, the automobile, utilized electricity, radio, satellites, cinema, written poetry, cured diseases. All destroyed so fast. By plastic.

So if this all started with a “Western trend,” then I think it’s time we reverse this trend and start making plastic uncool. It may be as simple as that.

Believe it or not, I myself used disposable plastic water bottles not too long ago. I naively thought as long as I recycled it after using it, it was ok. I’ve since learned better. Here’s some quick facts:

Only 9% of plastic actually gets recycled. The rest is inundating our landfills (since China recently refused to accept anymore of our recycled plastic), gets burned into toxic fumes, or pollutes the ocean. The ocean is predicted to contain more plastic waste than fish by 2050. Plastic pollution in the ocean is a direct threat to sea birds and fish/mammals. Our plastic litter injures and kills countless innocent animals daily.

700 species are expected to go extinct as a result of plastic pollution, starting with sea turtles. Sea turtles have been around since the time of the dinosaurs. Photo Credit: Shutterstock/Rich Carey

A truck overflowing with plastic bottles in Beijing. China recently stopped accepting our recycled plastics. Photo Credit: LIU JIN/AFP/Getty Images

If you still don’t have a heart or a conscience or just don’t care, this is where it starts to hit home: Let’s talk microplastics. Microplastics are small pieces of plastic that form when plastic starts to break down. Microplastics pollute the ocean, lakes and rivers, and contaminate the food we eat, water we drink and air we breathe. Americans ingest 74,000 microplastic particles a year, or 5 grams of plastic per week – about the size of a credit card. Bon appétit. 💳

Microplastics in all their micro-plasticy horror. Bottled water has double the amount of microplastics as tap. Photo Credit: iStock

More research is needed to identify the specific effects microplastics have on our health, but the chemicals in plastic have been linked to everything from cancer to infertility – so we know the effect is not good. One of the biggest contributors to our microplastic ingestion? Drinking bottled water. Bottled water has double the amount of microplastics as tap. 😱☠️

Still feel good cracking open that bottle of plastic water? Is it worth the convenience? How convenient is it, really?

The plastic water bottle is on track to become the new cigarette: a relic of what once was considered “cool,” but now those who know better or who have any regard for their health or effect on others will kick it like a bad habit. There’s plenty of alternatives out there to quench your thirst. You need just look.

Just a picture of Jack Johnson looking super cool on his mission to rid the beaches of Hawaii (and the world) of plastic. Does it get any cooler than this guy? Let’s be more like Jack, people. Let’s be more like Jack. Photo Credit: Instagram

Some of you reading this ditched plastic water bottles years ago. Kudos! It took me some time, so I understand it’s not easy and there’s a lot of issues at play. Personally, I liked the sterility of a fresh bottle and found it hard to wash a reusable bottle regularly. I had a Swell bottle for years but it just wasn’t doing the trick. Although stunningly sleek and neon pink, there were a few key problems. One, it didn’t hold much water. And two, it had to be hand washed. Although I do have a fantastic silicone deep bottle cleaner, the hassle of hand cleaning everyday is just too much work for me with a small child. So, although I would start out well-intentioned with my Swell at the beginning of the week, it ended up next to the sink by Friday. I embarrassingly succumbed to my disposable water bottles time and time again (although I did step it up to Tetra-packaged Flow bottles).

So, I revisited the issue and sat down to find a solution. I knew I needed something dishwasher safe. And I knew that glass was not going to work for me because of my small child – simply too risky if it breaks or gets left out. So I went to the best and only place to find anything – Amazon.

In comes the LAMOSE: a stainless steel, dishwasher-safe water bottle. While it doesn’t come in as many colors as Swell or the similar trendy brands, it does come in a selection of classic colors – I went with white – and different sizes, depending on whether you need something lightweight or are looking to carry around the hefty recommended daily serving of water (like me). Click HERE to see the LAMOSE 28oz Stainless Steel Water Bottle on Amazon.

Oh Lamose, how I Lalove thee. Available on Amazon for $27.99 for the 28 oz.

While it is dishwasher safe, it’s also nice to get in there and scrub the inside once a week or whenever it starts to get a little smelly. For that, I rec the Innobaby Silicone Bottle Brush. I initially purchased this bad boy for baby bottles and it’s withstood the test of time and turned out to be one of the best purchases ever. So far it’s lasted me over 2 years and is still going strong. You can just throw this sucker in the dishwasher too. Much better for the environment than disposable pipe/bottle cleaners – and better for your wallet too. Click HERE to see the Innobaby Silicone Bottle Brush on Amazon.

Isn’t she lovely? The Innobaby Silicone Bottle Brush available on Amazon for $12.95.

Lastly, when it comes to the water you’re using to fill up your reusable bottle, that was also presenting a problem in my home. Our hand-pour Brita filter simply wasn’t big enough for our household of 3. We needed something more… substantial. So we upgraded to the extra large Brita Ultra Max. It holds 18 cups or 1.13 gallons of water. Enough so I wasn’t having to fill up the filter after every time I refilled my water bottle. And it comes with a filter that lasts 6 months and gets rid of 99% of all contaminants found in tap water. Best feature: it has an easy-pour spigot for easy refills and a flip-top lid for when it’s time to fill’er back up again after a day or so of water guzzling. Click HERE to see the Brita Ultra Max on Amazon.

Bigger is better. Brita Ultra Max available on Amazon for $40.49.

These purchases took a bit of experimentation and trial and error to get right. This is par for the course for picky consumers who are a bit set in their ways. BUT eco-friendly alternatives ARE out there. And when all else fails, just grab a glass and fill up with tap. It’s better than doubling down on bottled cancer-particle water.

I hope you found this article helpful or inspirational on your own personal journey to help lighten the load of plastic pollution in this beautiful planet we share.