Day 3 of the Zero Waste Challenge: Use a Reusable Water Bottle

31 Day Zero Waste Challenge

January 3, 2019 | Kathryn Kellogg

Last Updated on August 21, 2024

Using a reusable water bottle brings us to day three of the zero waste challenge! The beginning of the challenge focuses on simple swaps. We’re currently addressing the big four.

These are four items that create a lot of waste that’s fairly easy to avoid. Today, I challenge you to bring a reusable water bottle with you everywhere you go. Refillable water bottles reduce loads of plastic waste every day, and choosing eco friendly water bottles made from sustainable materials makes it even better. Stay hydrated, look trendy, and help the environment with this one simple swap!

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Table of Contents

water bottles that are reusable

Water bottles that are reusable used to make me feel silly. How silly is that? I felt weird walking into the local grocery store or shopping mall carrying around my 40 oz stainless steel tumbler.

Instead, I just walked around the heat of California super thirsty until I could find water — any water — I could get my hands on. That was usually a disposable plastic bottle of water.

I had gotten over the undeserved embarrassment long before Stanley’s went viral and became popular, but I was thrilled when they did! A cute, refillable water bottle that’s also sustainable? So many people are making a sustainable step toward being eco friendly and don’t even know it.

Choosing an environmentally friendly water bottle and carrying it around with you everywhere is a great step toward reducing plastic waste and lowering your carbon footprint.

the problem:

Every day in the United States, 50 million plastic bottles are landfilled. That’s 38 billion, with a B, plastic bottles a year. Talk about a lot of waste!

You might be wondering why we’re landfilling these bottles and not recycling them. Recycling is great and a good place to start (we’ll cover it later on in the challenge), but it is not the answer.

Did you know plastic only has a 9 percent recycle rate? That’s about to drop even lower because China has put a ban on plastic imports from the United States for recycling.

But what you can do today to help prevent that is just simply bring your own water bottle.

There are so many different kinds of refillable water bottles on the market nowadays. From glass to stainless steel, you have a lot of options to choose from.

the refillable water bottle solution:

Assuming you use your refillable water every day, and drink, say, 60oz a day, you can save 3.75 plastic bottles every single day. Even if you only replaced one disposable water bottle a day, that would keep 365 bottles out of the landfills each year.

Now imagine if your whole family did that.

Imagine if everyone did that. There is simply no reason that disposable plastic water bottles should be thrown away like they are. There’s no reason they should exist!

Water bottles that are reusable are convenient (even airports have filling stations!), trendy, and practical. Plus, they’re cost effective. Carrying a refillable water bottle around just makes sense.

the kinds of reusable water bottle to consider

There’s more than one type of refillable water bottle, and they each have their own pros and cons. When choosing your own bottle to carry around, keep these things in mind.

glass:

Easy to recycle, beautiful, keeps the item being stored tasting the way it should, can make your own from an empty glass jar.

On the other hand, glass water bottles can be fragile and may not hold up well to busy lifestyles that are on the move a lot.

stainless steel:

Easy to recycle, keeps water cold for hours, so many great appealing designs, durable.

As a downside, these eco friendly water bottles may dent easily, and the paint/coating on them can dent.

plastic:

Often comes with a built-in filter system, lightweight and easy to carry, won’t break if you drop it.

A heavy con to plastic bottles is that they’re not as easy to recycle, and not as environmentally friendly to produce from raw materials. However, a sturdy plastic bottle that you’ll use for a super long time is still more eco friendly than less sturdy bottles you’ll have to replace often.

Each water bottle is different, so keep that in mind when making your choice on which to buy.

how to make refillable water bottles part of your life

Worried you’ll buy one or two water bottles that are reusable and then never use them? You’re not alone. I myself admitted above that I had a hard time making this eco friendly swap.

make it a mantra:

This is how I always remember to bring my refillable water bottle with me: Before I leave the house, I ask myself ‘phone, wallet, WATER, keys’.

So I just throw water into that little mantra most people ask themselves before leaving the house. That way, I remember to bring my water bottle with me.

Leave it in your car, carry it in your hand, or plop it into your bag. Whatever works best for you, just as long as you have it within reach.

get a filter:

Most places in the United States have drinkable tap water. I know not everywhere does, but most do.

If you can’t stand the taste of your tap water, think about investing in a water filter. You can typically buy them pretty inexpensively.

Kishu stick is one amazing way to filter water without plastic (and my personal favorite).

They last a really long time. It says they only last three to four months online, but I think as long as you’re taking care of them, they’ll last much longer.

I’ve had mine for over a year and it works just fine.

I simply place it in a pot of boiling water every two to three months to release all of the toxins and then I put it back in the bottle to keep filtering.

Activated charcoal naturally bonds with toxins. This is a good thing! It means it absorbs and removes mercury, chlorine, copper, and even lead from your water.

At the end of its life, you can compost it or use it as a deodorizer. Add it to your compost, bury it in your plant bed, or use it to deodorize your fridge.

keep it stocked:

If you’re always running short on time and don’t want to go hunting for your bottle and fill it with filtered water before leaving the house, get a set of bottles for your fridge.

Fill them with tap water at the beginning of the week so you can grab a bottle and be out the door in a flash!

take the challenge!

I challenge you to not buy or use a single-use plastic water bottle until February. The goal here is that you’ll fall in love with your reusable water bottle and it will become a staple in your routine.

Practice the mantra, and get creative! If you’re thirsty, is there a water fountain nearby? Is there a cup you can get out of the kitchen? Can you drink the tap water instead of getting a bottle at the restaurant?

want more?

Just starting out? Have 1,000 burning questions!? Get access to my private GZW community, where I’ll be hosting weekly lives throughout the challenge and I answer all of your most pressing questions.

faqs about eco friendly water bottles

is one type of reusable bottle better than the others?

It’s absolutely up to preference. Personally, I prefer stainless steel bottles because I feel like I get all of the pros of both glass and plastic (aesthetically pleasing and environmentally friendly like glass, sturdy and long-lasting like plastic).

But the best reusable bottle is the one you’ll consistently use.

Absolutely! This list is not at all exhaustive, but some overall good brands to consider are: Klean Kanteen and Swell (stainless steel), Life Factory (glass), and Bobble (plastic).

They each make different kinds of reusable water bottles from different materials, but they’ll all get the job done.

which kind of refillable bottle is the cheapest?

Plastic has become a problem for a reason: it’s far and away the cheapest material. This makes a plastic reusable bottle the cheapest to buy.

However, you can find super affordable options in all varieties, as well as very expensive models in each kind.

When on the fence about whether an item is worth it, consider the cost per use formula. That is, the price of the item divided by the number of times you anticipate using it. If you spend $50 on a 40z stainless steel tumbler and think you’ll use it every day for at least one year, it makes the cost per day $0.14.

That’s way cheaper than any disposable bottle! And kind of puts it into perspective for what’s ‘worth it.’

miss a day?

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TJ says:

January 10, 2019 at 4:27 am

Great ideas! Our whole family uses water bottles, even our oldest in college has 2 she constantly fills up. The university has the water fountains that can fill up reusable bottles. People can save so much money if they stop buying water and as in day 7, stop buying the single serve containers. I am guilty of the last one, but only on occasions thankfully.

1. Kathryn Kellogg says:
  
  January 11, 2019 at 1:10 am
  
  That’s so great that your whole family is on board!