Sunday, August 23, 2009

my eco life has been flipped upside down

I have had my fair share of reusable bottles. I just can't justify buying disposable bottles of water when you can fill up for free or almost free. Just think of how much energy is being saved just by filling up with a reusable bottle instead of drinking from a plastic bottle that gets thrown away and then more energy goes into making the next one you're going to drink from. So I used to use these cheapie plastic ones I got from China just because I could just refill and be all eco friendly and such and then the whole BPA leaching issue arose. I was probably especially affected since I used my bottles to drink tea because Chinese ones always include this cool little strainer thing for teas. It was said that a huge indicator was if you could smell the plastic of your bottle, it probably was not very safe to drink from. Sure enough, my bottles smelled heavily of plastic when there was hot tea in it. Sigh.

Last summer, while gallavanting through Lucerne with my college roomie, I decided it would be awesome to get a Sigg bottle from Switzerland. I bought a one-liter bottle and carried it the rest of our trip, refilling wherever it was safe to and saving my Euros while doing so. Just now, I found out the sad truth about said bottle--that its lining contains BPA. Cry. They have been working their way around this for a very long time by not denying that their lining has BPA in it but stating that it does not leach BPA. Very fishy. Any brand new bottles that don't have that brassy look on the inside but are lined with a beige color are safe but mine unfortunately was purchased just before they started producing those (August of 2008). But I have no idea when they even actually started selling them. I just feel so very lied to right now. Sure, it's possible it doesn't leach BPA and my future babies won't be growing extra limbs but all the denial just makes me so upset. On top of that, I have learned that apparently cheaper aluminum bottles still do leach BPA, though not as much as plastic. WHY.

Anywho, if you are a Sigg owner, supposedly you can e-mail them your info and they will send you a new one for trading in your old bottle. There are also stores, such as this one that will give you a big discount when you exchange your old Sigg for something BPA-free like Klean Kanteen, which seems to be the bottle of choice as a Sigg alternative.

2 comments:

  1. Dude thanks! I bought a Sigg for my sister last September for the whole no BPA thing. But she stopped using it had a narrow mouth.

    Do you have reusable shopping bags also...

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  2. well, it still serves its purpose of not leaching tons of bpa into your water, but it's still so saddening to know it exists in there.

    and yes sir, i do indeed have reusable shopping bags! i really like the ones that fold away. it's just ridiculous that this concept of using a bag when you shop just took off in the states not too long ago whereas they have been using them in europe for years and years and years

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