Skip to content

Healthy in Houston

“The quest for a healthier, more balanced lifestyle in one of America's fattest cities”

August 4, 2010 Making Eco-Friendly Choices

Photograph by How Can I Recycle This. Flickr Creative Commons.

The Water Bottle

I’m one of those people who pretty much always has a drink in her hand. When I cut back on diet soda, I turned to the bad habit of drinking bottled water. I used to try to recycle the bottles, but they don’t pick up recycling at your door in Houston, and I was getting a bad reputation among my friends and family for driving around with a car full of empty water bottles. So I started throwing them away. I felt bad doing it, but something had to give. I tried to reduce my waste by refilling the bottles, but I was still creating more water bottle waste than I was comfortable with. Plus, I’ve learned that it’s supposed to be bad for your health to reuse water bottles. Disposable water bottles are difficult to clean effectively, which can lead to harmful bacteria buildup, and if you do wash these bottles, the plastic can breakdown and leach potentially dangerous chemicals into the water. All-around, not a good picture.

So I decided that part of my healthier living quest should include buying a water bottle. I’ve been hesitant to do so for several reasons: I didn’t realize how bad it could be to reuse your disposable bottles, I didn’t like the idea of paying for an empty water bottle, and I wasn’t sure which one to buy. We’ve covered the first point. As for the second, I know it doesn’t really make sense…over time you pay more for bottled water than a water bottle, and you throw the bottles away. So the third point has really been the sticking point…which bottle to buy?

I seemed to have two options: plastic or metal.  There has been a lot of publicity lately about the potential dangers of plastic water bottles that contain a chemical called bisphelol A (BPA). Many of the plastic water bottles available on the market today advertise that they are BPA free. Great! But they used to think the BPA bottles were safe, so who’s to say they won’t decide the other plastics aren’t safe, either? That left the metal option. There are two types of metal water bottles available: stainless steel, and aluminum. The aluminum bottles have a lining that is plastic in nature, so what’s the point? And many people have suggested that the stainless steel bottles leave a faint metal taste in the water. I don’t want my water to taste like metal. Plus, the metal bottles just aren’t quite as cute (yes, this is a factor!).

In my search for a safe and attractive water bottle, I came across the Lifefactory bottle on someone else’s blog. The Lifefactory water bottle is glass, with a silicone sleeve. The sleeve is supposed to help protect it from shattering, although breaking is still a possibility with glass. I’m not the least clumsy person in the world, so buying a glass water bottle is a risk, but given my other options, I decided this was the best one for me right now. So I set out to find it. It was amazingly difficult to find this bottle in stores. It seemed like it was only available online, and if I’m paying $21 for a water bottle, I don’t want to spend $10 more on shipping. Plus, I wanted to check it out before I bought it. I finally found it on the Whole Earth Provision Company’s website. I went there, and they had it in stock. Yay! They said they can hardly keep them on the shelves. I bought one of the 3 they had left.

A few things to note about this item: 1) The lady at the counter suggested I hand wash it, but it’s advertised and labeled as dishwasher safe, so into the dishwasher it will go 2) The mouth is a bit wide, and it feels kind of like you’re drinking out of a jar. This isn’t a problem when I’m sitting at my desk, but it can be tricky when walking or driving…watch out for spills. Definitely not a great choice for the gym or a run, but I have a #2 plastic sports-bottle for that. Maybe at some point they’ll come up with something like a sports-top for easier drinking, although with it being glass I probably still wouldn’t take it for a workout.  3) Make sure you screw the top on straight to prevent leaks.

The Lunch Bag

I used to have a little pink insulated lunch box for days I packed. I bought it at Target, and at the time, I thought it was cute. A couple of years later, I thought it was embarrassing, and when we moved, I threw it away. What I liked about this lunch box was that I could put an ice pack in it and not have to worry about finding room in the refrigerator at work for my lunch. My plan was to go find another, more adult lunch bag to serve a similar function. In the meantime, I was using plastic grocery bags which are a) wasteful, and b) kind of ghetto (no offense). I still haven’t made my way to the store to buy a new bag, but this morning I discovered that I had this bag from One Green Street in Houston. It’s one of their Chico Bags. It starts as a pocket-sized pouch, and opens into this bag. Their website says they give one away with your purchase every Tuesday to promote reusable bag use. I got this one free at the grand opening of Sugarcane, an organic bar in Houston. It’s not insulated, but it sure beats the grocery store bag!

Update:

I was walking through HEB the other day and saw these cute (but adult–I think…) insulated bags for like $10…too good to pass up. This one is a 12 can size, and works perfectly for lunch.

Advertisement

Tags: , , , , , ,

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.