Stainless Steel Water Bottles
Stainless steel water bottles are great alternatives to plastic water bottles. Not only are plastic water bottles bad for your health, they add to the amounts of trash in landfills and oceans which is harmful for the planet. Also, some chemicals used in manufacturing plastic water bottles can leach into the water that you drink.
In the past decade, stainless steel water bottles have seen an increase in popularity. If your main reason for buying bottled water is to avoid discarding plastic bottles, you don’t have to compromise anymore.
Stainless steel water bottles are the perfect option for those who want to drink more water or even coffee, without contributing to pollution. Efforts to reduce plastic waste has seen positive results in some areas but it is still not enough. Only 1 out of 6 plastic water bottles is being recycled and the others are still being thrown away.
There are many good alternatives to single use plastic water bottles and stainless steel water bottles being the most popular and widely available and there are many reasons to buy stainless steel water bottles.
Drinking from a stainless steel water bottle has a lot of benefits. It is safer than plastic and saves you money and better for our environment. However, there are many low quality stainless steel water bottles out there and drinking from these water bottles might be dangerous to your health.
Generally, stainless steel water bottles are much safer than other metals used in water bottles. Aluminium, the other type of metal that has been used to make reusable water bottles, has been linked to various diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Moreover, aluminium is not food grade which means it is not safe to use as material for food and beverage containers. To make it safer to use, many companies use a lining made of plastic which could contain BPA or bisphenol-A. When the plastic liner gets worn down, it could expose you to the aluminium.
Unlike aluminum, there are types of stainless steel that are considered food grade. 18/10 and 18/8 are probably the most common stainless steel that are used in food and beverage containers. The first number indicates the amount of chromium present while the second number represents the amount of nickel.
For instance, 18/10 means the stainless steel materials have 18% chromium and 10% nickel. Both chemical elements serve a purpose. Chromium protects the material from oxidation or rust while nickel makes stainless steel more resistant to corrosion.
When buying a stainless steel water bottle, make sure that you check what kind of stainless steel was used in making the water bottle. If the manufacturer did not indicate the type of stainless steel used in producing their water bottle, there is a big chance that it is not food grade.
Buy from known brands if you can help it. Sure, stainless steel water bottles from known brands are more expensive than those from unknown brands but keep in mind you can’t put a price on your health and safety.
