Send a fashion statement, an environmental declaration, and an economic encyclical with a stainless steel water bottle.
You are done with plastic. That innocuous-looking little plastic bottle in your hand is, in fact, a menace to society. Properly recycle it, and promise never to buy another one. Invest in a water purifier and good glass or ceramic containers for home use. For auto, gym, and trail use, invest in and cherish a new steel bottle. Not only will you help save the planet and contribute to a sustainable economy, but also you will get a fashionable little product that will deliver years of reliable service under the most trying conditions.
The short course in plastic economics.
Today’s economy very closely resembles the fragile American economy after World War II. Women skillfully and reliably had replaced men in manufacturing and other “smokestack industries,” and conversion from wartime to peacetime production demanded that corporate America preserve the jobs it had created and open-up more for war-worn vets eager to return to their “normal” lives.
“Disposables” offered a wonderfully viable solution. Paper towels create a lot more jobs than cotton towels ever could. Disposable diapers, a post-war innovation, create jobs in forestry, manufacturing, and waste-management. Aluminum cans create jobs in mining, manufacturing, bottling, and retail. It took seventy years for the downside risk to become apparent. Your not-so-harmless little plastic bottle is a relic of and icon for an outmoded way of doing business and disgracing the earth. In its tiny little way, your steel water bottle demonstrates your commitment to a new way of thinking about consumer products developed in a sustainable economy.
Your stainless steel bottle says and does a lot of good things.
Your metal bottle accomplishes a great deal of good by all that it does not do. It does not introduce BHP, PVC, and phthalates into the environment or your body; and it does not add a billion tons of waste to landfills every year. It does not consume 17 billion barrels of oil in production and distribution. Your steel water bottle does, however, encourage renovation of American manufacturing, bringing home thousands of outsourced jobs. Your steel water bottle will last a lifetime, and manufacturers may “up-cycle” it when you are finished with it. Best of all, your steel water bottle will keep your beverages icy cold and mightily refreshing with no strain on your conscience or the planet.