ORA plastic bottle takes 500 years to decompose and, according to Greenpeace, we throw around eight million tonnes of plastic waste into the ocean each year. So something had to be done. And a little has been done: reusable bottles, but as in recent years the consumption of two liters of water per day have been attributed almost divine properties, it is not enough. And reusable bottles have become an allegory of healthy living. In that place on social networks where a few years ago the marketing world placed the giant glass of coffee and later the green smoothie, it has now placed the water bottle of cosmic dimensions. But how did we get here? Let's go in parts.
It all started with an obsession: drinking two liters of water a day. The theory dates back to 1945 and the body that made it popular was the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council of the United States. In their report, the experts pointed out that drinking eight glasses of water a day was the ideal amount for an adult, but the media of the time forgot to include another important piece of information that came below: “That most of that amount “It is contained in the foods that are commonly consumed.” The result is that the concern about hydration has become almost hilarious and the data on bottled water consumption, a direct attack on the health of the planet since, according to a study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, the environmental impact of bottled water is up to 3500 times that of tap water.
The theory of drinking two liters of water a day dates back to 1945, but when it was revived a few years ago, it was forgotten to clarify that this amount includes the amount contained in food.
More than one million disposable water bottles are sold worldwide every minute. These are data from a global report by the United Nations, which ensures that this sector has not stopped growing and expects it to double its sales by 2030. If we look at Spain, the average cost of mineral water is 63 euros per year per family and There are divisions here too: consumption is higher in the communities located to the east. And, although the quality of the water in each region is something fundamental when evaluating this consumption, no one is aware that there is a lot of marketing in considering bottled water as a healthier product than tap water and the staff is He's moisturizing as if his social standing depends on it.
We are facing the “camel syndrome”, that is, the obsession with carrying a bottle of water with you at all times, a concern that the English comedian Russell Kane sarcastically describes on his TikTok account: «You used to just go out home and you trusted that you would get water wherever you went. Today I go out without a bottle of water and I'm already panicking. I can see my skeleton rotting on the side of the highway: What the f*** happened to us?
And then reusable bottles arrived… and with them, madness. What were once niche products for campers and hikers are now fashionable, almost cult accessories, and are part of a global market where one brand, Stanley, has gone from billing 73 million dollars in 2019 to 750 million last year. Because we are no longer just talking about containers to carry water, but about the Stanley Cup, a mix between a cup and a thermos (or rather a sum, because the gadget is enormous) that has become a global phenomenon.
«Before you simply left the house and trusted that you would get water wherever you went. Today I go out without a bottle of water and I'm already panicking. What the f*** happened to us?
Customers raiding store shelves to get limited editions, fights to be first, employees fired for reselling thermoses before they went on sale… The fever has reached the point that some of these bottle-mug-glass They have sold for more than $200. And all because of the mentality of Terence Reilly, the new president who came to the company in 2020 from Crocs (the ones with the rubber clogs) and who understood that his products had to become an object of desire through the influencers and campaigns that play with the concept of scarcity (if you don't buy a model quickly, it will be sold out).
At this point and surrendered to the evidence that we must drink water and better in a reusable bottle (without needing to spend our payroll on it), we can only wonder: And which one will be the best to maintain our commitment to sustainability? Aluminum, glass or plastic? The Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU) has the answer and, unlike what one might think, the reusable bottles with the least impact are plastic ones, compared to stainless steel ones. The reason is that the production of plastic, from obtaining raw materials to manufacturing the bottle, requires considerably less energy, which translates into a lower environmental impact. Be careful, we always talk about plastic for reusable containers, let's not forget. And the OCU adds: «And if you are looking for a thermal one, it better be made of aluminum. In any case, try to take care of it so that it lasts as long as possible. “Don't do like those viral challenges that collect stainless steel bottles to show off their environmental commitment, without realizing that they are achieving just the opposite.”
#camel #syndrome #drink #bottled #water #means
