by Nicole Antoinette

Okay fine, I’ll admit it, I drink bottled water.

Not because I’m fussy or partial to the taste, but because I’m just straight up lazy.  Buying bottled water is so convenient, it’s right there, it’s relatively cheap, it’s perfectly chilled, and best of all, when I’m done with it I don’t have to carry it around for the rest of the day.

“But! But! Nooo!” my screamingly liberal conscience yells.  “What about the environment??”

Oh yeah, The Environment.  Truthfully, it’s easy to ignore the environmental impact of my everyday activities because, well, the impact is easy to ignore.  I didn’t carry the 38 billion plastic bottles to American landfills in 2006.  I don’t measure out the trillions of gallons of oil that are used each year in the production of bottled water.  Put simply, my day to day life is the same whether I sip from the bottle or pour from the tap.

Except that in reality, it’s not, which is the hardest part of making environmentally charged decisions, admitting to yourself that your small actions do matter, acknowledging that if you stop contributing to the 2.5 million plastic bottles that are thrown away every hour in the United States, it matters.  It’s one less bottle per hour.  And over a lifetime?  That certainly adds up to quite a lot of bottles.

So a few months ago, I gave in.  I traded my Poland Spring bottle for an old reusable plastic one I had in the back of my cabinet, patting myself on the back the entire time about my incredible “sacrifice.”  Sacrifice indeed, I realized, when I came across studies about Bisphenol A and other chemicals that can leach out of the bottle and into your drinking water, causing everything from early puberty to breast cancer.

How, I asked myself, had I gone from saving the environment to putting myself at risk for cancer?  When did trying to do the right thing get so complicated?  And could I just have a damn drink of water already?

Convinced that there had to be a better solution, I went a-Googling and came up with incredibly helpful results for hydrating without all the headache.

Some options worth checking out are:

The Comeback Kid: Nalgene bottles
After having seemingly been the poster child for the dangers of BPA, Nalgene has come back with bottles made from Eastman Tritan copolyester, a strong, dishwasher safe alternative that can be used for both warm and cold beverages.  Also of note, they’ve teamed up with Brita on the FilterforGood campaign to reduce bottled water waste.

The Non-Bottle Bottle: Platypus
This collapsible design allows you to roll it up when not in use, and is tough enough to be frozen or boiled.  It weighs 80% less than conventional water bottles and is 100% BPA free, perfect for backpacking or travel.

And, my two personal favorites:

SIGG and Klean Kanteen.  Both are ultra lightweight, high quality, taste-neutral, recyclable bottles that meet FDA requirements for food-grade products.   The big plus for Klean Kanteen is that their bottles are stainless steel, meaning that they don’t need a special lining.  SIGG bottles, which are made from aluminum, do have an internal lining, but it’s guaranteed to never peel off, even if the outer bottle is dented.  SIGG has also taken the style factor into account, offering a wide variety of colors and patterns to suit every taste.

Oh, and an added benefit: both companies are proud members of 1% For the Planet, an inspiring alliance of members of the global business community committed  to donating 1% of sales to environmental groups around the world.

I’ll drink to that.