The point of reusable water bottles is to fill them with tap water, so the waste that comes from one-time-use plastic is reduced. But in today’s world, we seem to be missing the point of reusable water bottles. They are looked at as an accessory more than a sustainable item. According to Vintage Market Research, in 2022 the reusable water bottle market was at 8.92 billion dollars, the highest it had ever been.
So, are reusable water bottles doing any good? Unfortunately, the answer is unclear. The number of reusable bottles the average person owns is increasing, but hopefully the consumer uses each bottle a handful of times (at least). The more work a company puts into making a bottle, the more uses it takes for the consumer to be combatting the waste that they would be creating by drinking straight from a plastic bottle. According to the information from Plastic Education’s article, the traditional Stanley tumbler takes 30-90 uses before it has done any good for the environment. But, does the consumer truly use the same bottle around 60 times? If we assume that they use the bottle every day, this is only two months, which seems to be a short amount of time and a reasonable number of uses. It gets more difficult to estimate the number of uses of the bottle when the consumer owns multiple reusable water bottles. So if the user does not fill the bottle at least 30 times, from the tap, they are creating more waste by buying the tumbler than not.
Plus, if the consumer fills their water bottle from a plastic bottle or water jug rather than from the tap, they do nothing to stop the waste that is collecting in the oceans.
Social media has helped create a well known phenomenon called micro trends, when many people are influenced to buy items that they will only use for a short period of time, before throwing them out. Expensive water bottles are being added to the growing list of items that influencers are paid to promote so that viewers will buy them in multiple sizes and colors. Limited edition bottles from popular brands like Owala and Stanley sell out every holiday. Buyers even go as far as fighting each other in stores for the final bottle on the shelves. As some may remember from the news, in Target stores this summer consumers would switch the lids of Owala bottles to get a more unique color combination that they liked more than the original bottle. As reported by the Business Insider, this made packing orders much more difficult for Target employees, but it also led to others receiving a completely different color than they ordered. If you buy what is popular every time there is a new trend, you could be buying up around 5 to 10 bottles a year. The bottles are not helping the environment as much as they could be because of the number of bottles that are thrown away after only a few uses.
How do Dana Hall students handle the fast-changing trends in water bottles? I asked a few friends, who almost all said that their family has drawers or cabinets full of old water bottles that they don’t use anymore, but they do not throw them out. These students on average own six water bottles but only use their favorite three in rotation. Between school and sports, there may be a need for multiple water bottles if the student does not bring their one bag everywhere they go. Hadley Brown ‘26 says “I love my Stanley and Hydro Flask so much, partially because it’s the trend, but mostly because I love the straw.” Charlotte Gupta ‘26 agreed, saying, “I drink three full Hydro Flasks a day because I love drinking out of a straw.” Although water bottles are popular because they are included in the newest trends, they are still used due to their functionality.
What can you do to help the environment?
- There are various programs to trade in water bottles, and Hydro Flask is one of them. On their website there is a trade in tab that explains how to send in an old bottle for a $5 credit.
- If you have an Owala bottle and want to add a new color to their collection, first take a look at the replacement lids. From the Owala website it is an option to just buy a lid for $7 instead of purchasing a new bottle. I believe that these options create less waste while allowing the consumer to get a new color or style if they please.
- This doesn’t apply to many people, but if possible do your best to use filtered tap water instead of lots of plastic bottles to reduce your waste. If consumers pour water from plastic bottles into a reusable bottle, it does no good for the environment because they are still creating waste.
Overall, the reusable water bottle market has moved from a utility to an accessory, and sales are growing, but so is the waste.
Indresh Chandel