by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Meet Dopper!
Dopper is a Cradle-to-Cradle water bottle company that is bringing clean water to Nepal. Yes, the bottle is plastic but it will still replace thousands of plastic water bottles that an individual would otherwise use. And we also have to learn and understand that not all plastic is bad.
Replacing single-use drink containers with a reusable bottle, even if that one happen to be a plastic one, like the Dopper, not only cuts down on trash and problems like plastic pollution in the ocean, but it also reduces the amount of new resources and energy needed for the manufacturing process. It also cuts down on the unnecessary abstraction of water as, it has to be said, much of the bottled water is nothing more than glorified tap water. Dopper water bottles are designed and manufactured in the Netherlands.
The water bottle company Dopper it taking that concept a step further, with their Cradle to Cradle certified water bottle. The concept of Cradle to Cradle is not only that a product can be recycled, but that it is designed from the beginning to ensure that the materials can be made back into the same product – not downcycled. So, Dopper will take your water bottle back at the end of its life (or pieces of the bottle should it break) to make more bottles. Or you can put in municipal plastics recycling.
That said, the bottle is designed to last a long time, and it can be transformed for different occasions. If you want a wineglass on your picnic, you can unscrew the top third and have a cup. If you just want to take it on a run, there is now a sport cap available. And the wide mouth of the regular top makes it easy to fill up the bottle from the tap. Even easier you unscrew the “wine glass” and fill the bottle.
The Cradle to Cradle certification also means that the materials used and the manufacturing process are non-toxic and conserve water and, according to Dopper's website, the manufacturing process is “climate neutral.”
Dopper water bottles are designed to encourage people to drink tap water instead of buying plastic bottled water, but many people around the world don't have access to this source of potable water. That is why the company also started the charitable Dopper Foundation, which is helping set up safe drinking water and sanitation systems in remote regions of Nepal wit 5% of net profits from Dopper water bottles donated to the foundation.
Before closing let me reiterate once again that not all plastics, despite of what we are often told, are bad. There are plastic products without which many things today just could not be done. A water bottle may not, necessarily, be one of those but as far as this bottle is concerned it is a great piece of kit and I like especially the way it can be used.
P.S. Even if you do not need another water bottle but still want to support this kind of work, you can donate directly the to the Dopper foundation.
© 2016
