Paper Water Bottle

Daniel T said | 12 December, 2008

It is refreshing to see so many water bottles entering the market, to help drive out and suppress our throw away culture. Although paper is not as reusable as metals, it is a step in the right direction. I personally have a metal water bottle. I think that using a reusable water bottle with fresh clean water is a good alternative to use and toss plastic bottles.

My background is as a chemist from Columbia U up in NYC. I now work as a technical columnist for a major (non-corporate) US news source.

Tap water is not always cleaner than bottled (spring) water. It depends on the municipality of the tap water or the source of the spring water. Basic bottled tap water is never a good idea, and by this I refer to brands such as Aquafina, Desani, etc.

Curious for an answer, I purchased 3 water testing kits. At my friend and colleague’s lab at Portland State University and with home test kits, I tested my home’s tap water and my store’s spring water, which was shipped in from another state. Both came out to be just as pure. There can be differences, such as the quality of pipes from the tap water’s source to your home. If you have an older home, pipes may be made of lead, or with newer homes, they may be made of PVC plastic.

There is no perfect source for urbanites, it seems. City water can be tainted with anything from caffeine to jet fuel for urban dwellers, and farm residue for country dwellers.

Be proactive. The best solution seems to be to test your water yourself with an approved test kit, or to call your city and ask for the water to be tested. In the US, this means calling your local
health department. Some cities offer free water testing, as is the case in Portland, Oregon USA.

What I have chosen to do is have my tap water tested. When this came out clean and absent of detectable (key word here) bad things, I chose to get a good quality filter that fit into my budget. If you choose to go with a filter, know what is first in your water. Otherwise, it’s like trying to filter out sand with a filter that has big holes. You need to know what you’re filtering out so you get the correct type of filter. There are many filters, from reverse osmosis (RO) to Ultraviolet, to simple charcoal. Keep in mind, however, that our ability to detect any object is only as good as the technology we employ. In other words, the technology we have today to detect what is bad for us equals what we know to be bad for us. Phrased another way, in the future, we will likely discover more things that are harmful for us in water and elsewhere, because technology, and our ability to use it, has improved.

So once my tap filter was in place, I bought a reusable water bottle. These are very popular today, but moreover it’s a good way to avoid using and tossing a lot of plastic water bottles each day. In the US, they range in price from about $15-35, depending on brand and store. I bought a 40 oz, or 1.2 liter, stainless steel Klean Kanteen brand, for which I paid about $25 from a company selling reusable water bottles, called Water Bottle People, online at http://www.waterbottlepeople.com.

I recommend talking to your local health department, as well as reading quality sources of information, such as peer reviewed journals, and books by noted authors. One particular book I like, is by Steve Meyeorwitz, a.k.a the Sproutman, entitled Water: The ultimate Cure.

Gary said | 15 December, 2008

It’s aesthetically pleasing to say the least. But with proper education I reckon that people will be able to dispose of these paper water bottles at recycling bins. We’re on the right track it seems.