Make your own BPA-free reusable water bottle

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

What do you mean? I can hear you think and ask. How can I make my own reusable water bottle? Simple, I tell you, and it will not cost you a cent.

The only true and guaranteed BPA-free reusable water bottle is made but from one substance, namely glass, and you can easily make your own. No, not glass or the bottle by blowing your own glass bottle and all that jazz. That is complicated and requires a great deal of skill. We are talking here reuse of what you would, otherwise, toss into the recycling bin.

Yes, that Snapple® bottle that you are just about to toss, washed out and label removed (if you want – I do) and then filled with tap water makes a real good reusable BPA-free (as it is glass) water bottle.

But, I hear you say, glass is breakable and therefore plastic and stainless steel bottles are much better, and lighter. Yes, it is true that glass is breakable and glass bottles will break if handled incorrectly but most plastics contain plasticizers that are hormone disruptors though some are free from it and stainless steel is the best choice when it comes to wanting an unbreakable bottle. However, if you want a BPA-free one for, well, free then reusing a glass bottle of one sort or another is a much better way to go. It is also better for the Planet as it is reuse.

There are many reusable water bottles on the market now that are but tarted up bottles similar to the ones that you can easily make yourself by reusing the likes of Snapple® bottles or other drink ones or even glass tomato ketchup ones. I have done it and so can you and with a little soft cozy made from some thick cloth they can be protected easily against breakages.

So, go for tap water with your own reused reusable water bottle. Please do not think about reusing plastic bottles (PET bottles) for this purpose as they are leaching BPA and other phthalates, and those all are hormone disrupting chemicals.

So-called BPA-free plastics also are not harmless as scientists have recently found and while some plastics are fine glass, especially if it costs you nothing, is much better for you and the Planet.

© 2014

Introducing Ohyo – the collapsabottle with a spout

The makers of Aquatina – the world’s first collapsible pocket drinks bottle – have launched its successor.

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Ohyo, which will be available in shops and online this Autumn, features a custom‐made nozzle designed to enhance the product’s adaptability and ease‐of‐use. The new pop‐out spout means the product can be used one‐handed, making it suitable for a range of new users including children, commuters and gym members.

Designed and made in Britain, the collapsible Aquatina bottle was created using toxin free plastic¹ and was put forward as a reusable and safer alternative to disposable plastic bottles, which have attracted criticism for their potentially harmful effects and poor environmental record. Although famously rejected by the dragons on Dragons’ Den and dismissed as a design that would be impossible to bring to market, Aquatina has proved them wrong with its widespread commercial success and international distribution network.

Guy Jeremiah, creator of Ohyo – www.ohyo.me – and the original Aquatina said: “Ohyo is the product I always wanted to make and the continuing success of Aquatina meant that we were able to design and manufacture its successor here in Britain. The new design makes it easier for more people to benefit from our cheaper alternative to environmentally questionable and, in some cases, harmful bottled water.”

“The average person in Europe buys 85 bottles of mineral water a year, at a cost of over £100. A typical UK local authority disposes of up to 10 million bottles a year at great cost to tax payers and, last year, we threw away 150 billion bottles, enough to stretch to the moon and back 50 times. Made of safe, reusable plastic, Ohyo is another step towards reducing this reliance. Used in combination with Find‐a‐Fountain, a service which promotes free water sources in the UK, everyone could save money and reduce their impact on the environment at the same time.”

Ohyo will be available on line and in retail outlets across the UK this Autumn.

Ohyo founded and manages the Find‐a‐Fountain campaign to promote free water sources in the UK – for more information visit www.findafountain.org

Ohyo is a collapsible water bottle with a nozzle that can be re‐used over 10,000 times. The big difference between Ohyo and Aquatina is the nozzle, which means that it can be used one‐handed, instead of having to remove Aquatina’s screw‐top each time you want a drink.

The name Ohyo is a combination of a play on the French word for water 'eau', and a reference to the word '‘yo‐yo', to denote

the up and down action of the bottle and if you spin the o’s and h’s around you almost get h2o!

Guy Jeremiah, creator of the original Aquatina is behind the Ohyo. The entrepreneur was famously slated by Duncan Bannatyne on Dragon’s Den, who threw the bottle back at him in rage. Guy’s more than delighted to have proved the dragons wrong.

The Ohyo bottle a sustainable, safe, cheaper and convenient alternative to buying bottled water and, important as well, it is designed and made in Britain.

The Ohyo bottle can be obtained direct from www.ohyo.me and coming very soon at Robert Dyas, Marks & Spencer and The British Museum .

© 2012

Full Disclosure Statement: The GREEN (LIVING) REVIEW received no compensation for any component of this article.

1 Small doses of antimony can make people feel ill and depressed. Water normally contains two parts per trillion (ppt) of antimony. Bottled water which has sat on a shelf for three months can contain 700 ppt. Ref: Chemistry World. Ohyo bottles are made from plastic which is PET and BPA free.

De Dopper Reusable Water Bottle – Product Review

De Dopper, the perfect bottle for tap water.

Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

De Dopper, or the Dopper (depending on language), is the perfect tap water bottle. It is sustainable, practical, and fashionable.

The Dopper is an initiative for the promotion of tap water and the reduction of plastic waste. For this purpose, the Dopper has introduced the perfect tap water bottle; durable, convenient and nicely designed.

Using a Dopper bottle means that you will no longer need to buy so-called “spring” water in disposable bottles, which will reduce plastic waste.

I was given a Dopper bottle as a promotional freebie (thank you very much indeed) by a company exhibiting at the 100% Design Show 2012 that I attended at Earls Court. I was so taken by the design of it that I decided to review it and let the readers know about it.

Trust the Dutch and the Danes, and in this case it is the Dutch, to come up with a great design and concept for a reusable tap water bottle.

Best of all is that it is not just designed in the Netherlands by Rinke van Remortel but it is also manufactured there with a zero carbon footprint, is free of BPA, as it is made of Polypropylene, and supports drinking water projects in Asia and Africa.

The best part of the bottle, and that's where there design comes in, is that it disassembles into three parts, the bottle, the cup (yes, a cup, as long as you leave the cap in place), and the cap.

This also makes is easy to hygienically clean the bottle by either using the dishwasher (the bottle is dishwasher-safe) or, and that is my recommendation, using a dishwashing brush with hot soapy water.

This three-part design is the best that I have so far seen in any reusable water bottle and it enables, as said, to really clean the bottle. Many others just cannot be cleaned properly as the size of the neck does not allow for good access.

I have rarely seen a reusable water bottle that well thought out and designed (and no, the company is not paying me to say this).

Polypropylene, while being a plastic, does not contain BPA and can also, should it ever be necessary that you want to dispose of the Dopper bottle, be recycled (almost) everywhere.

This bottle would fall under the “good plastic” as it is a plastic bottle that can safely be used time and again probably for a lifetime and its use does away with the one-way use PET bottles with the so-called “spring” water which also costs a fortune to buy.

In the Netherlands alone every day at least half a million of plastic (water) bottles are thrown away. Most of those, regardless of recycling schemes, end up on the rubbish dumps, on the street, in the rivers and finally in the sea.

Tap water can be had for almost nothing and many cities around the world do have free public drinking water fountains where you can fill up a bottle such as the Dopper.

Great design and great bottle...

© 2012

Green Bottle Stainless Steel Reusable Water Bottle – Product Review

Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The Green Bottle reusable water bottle originates in the USA – though is manufactured in China – and is distributed by “a fine choice ltd.” of Twickenham and is also available from the company's website.

The bottle that I received for review was my choice of the brushed stainless steel, though it comes in a multitude of colors and in three sizes, 350ml, 600ml, and 750ml.

According to the attached label, while made in China, the Green Bottle is made in a factory adhering to “Fair Labor Agreement” and thus that is already something to be said for this particular bottle, as regards to ethical standards.

The bottle is said to be BPA-free and that here refers to primarily the plastic stopper and the seal, as stainless steel, by its very nature, not requiring a lines, is and should be free of BPA and such like.

BPA-free, as regards to plastics, is rather a stretchable term as it has been found of later that it is not just BPA that is a problem. Other compounds too have, it would appear, the same or similar effects. The question thus arises as to which plastic is, in fact, safe to use, if any.

I had the opportunity to put the bottle to a real good test on Saturday, October 1, 2011 on my travel – by train and on foot – to Loseley Park for the Route to the Future event organized by Trudy Thompson of Bricks & Bread. Unlike so many other bottles that I have tested of stainless steel, with the rather large mouth, the Green Bottle's seal allowed not a single drop of water to escape.

This is, I am sure, due to the way that the stopper is created and to the way the thread of it has been designed.

A very nice and especially good reusable stainless steel water bottle for a very good price. In fact, I do doubt that you will get the same quality for the same price in the form of another bottle.

© 2011

Aquatina – The Collapsible Reusable Water Bottle

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Despite the fact that the Dragons of the BBC's “Dragon's Den” program rejected the Aquatina idea and refused to back Guy Jeremiah I believe this to be an interesting product with capabilities. Black Leisure and Millets, both Britain's leading outdoors equipment retailers also do.

What the Dragons, though the board, failed to appreciate is that reusing the single use PET bottle is not a good idea as far as health is concerned and not just for children (and we will come to that, however, in a separate article). This is primarily with regards to leaching Bisphenol A and (other) phthalates but also, and this must also be a concern, as to hygiene. The single use PET bottle is not easy to clean and to keep clean.

The Aquatina bottle – and that is the selling point for me – is designed and manufactured in the UK. It is not, and hopefully never will be, “Made in China”. Its carbon footprint is thus reduced in comparison to other bottles, whether single use or reusable as the Aquatina bottle is, which are predominately made in the Middle Kingdom.

The two British outdoor retailers, Blacks and Milliets, had the right nose, methinks, to get involved with Aquatina and I, personally, think that Aquatina would also be good an addition to larger “survival” kits as a collapsible water carrier. I mean, honest, who wants to carry water – for drinking – in a rubber birth control device? I know that I would not.

Coming back to the question or story of the Dragon's Den dragons and Aquatina I must say that the presentation could have been done better, perhaps, without the mention of the monetary volume of the bottled water market and even that of the reusable bottle market. Neither of that really mattered. It should have been the fact of Aquatina being a reusable water bottle than can be collapsed to a more-or-less convenient pocket size. Some pockets, I know, are smaller than others but it is the principle that counts.

The selling point, in my opinion, is the fact that Aquatina is a reusable water bottle that can collapsed and in that way can be carried, without getting into the way, unfilled, to a fountain or filling station and after the water has been drunk it can be collapsed again and stowed away in the pocket.

In fact, creating a pocket for it with a carabiner that would enable the Aquatina bottle to be carried, empty, clipped to a belt might be an accessory to be considered.

The Aquatina collapsible reusable water bottle may be the one tool that might just convert some bottled water users to switch to reusable bottle and tap water. It just might do it.

I must say that, while initially intrigued I did remain sceptical, prior to having used it a few times, as to whether the Aquatina bottle would work OK and such, but must say that I am, so far, pleasantly surprised.

The one main worry that I had, and maybe still have, to a very small degree, is the constant folding, the constant opening and collapsing, of this plastic concertina bottle and how the plastic will cope with that. Having read the test results from the university, however, I must say that they are rather impressive and the estimated nine years plus of serviceable life to me appears to be a good one.

As far as I am concerned, and, it would appear, also many other people, the Dragons, as more than once before, have not seen the potential of this product.

Was it not a similar panel that rejected Trevor Baylis' windup radio, now called Freeplay? All those that refused to back him then are now really kicking themselves.

Whether the bottled water market is US$ 85 Million or or not is not relevant in this equation and neither, really, is the size of the market in reusable water bottles.

The latter will get bigger as the former will shrink and shrink it will as people ditch the single use bottle but it also does not have unlimited expansion capacity either.

Neither here nor there that is anyway. What counts, however, that that Aquatina is, in my opinion, a convenient receptacle and carrying device to tap water, and at £5 retail (maybe the price could be rethought) for “Made in England” it is brilliant.

The Aquatina reusable collapsible bottle is made from LDPE (Low-Density Polyethylene) and is a plastic that does not have any association with the dreaded BPA and other similar substances.

© 2011

Full Disclosure Statement: The GREEN (LIVING) REVIEW received no compensation for any component of this article with the exception of a sample of the product to keep.