Plastic not only water bottle option

An estimated 34.6 billion plastic water bottles are bought each year and only about 12 percent are recycled.

Although plastic, aluminum and stainless steel are overwhelmingly the most common materials used when producing reusable water bottles, the popularity of each hasn’t been consistent. Although certain materials and brands might be more stylish or hazardous than others, they all affect the environment in different ways.

“I’ve seen everything from, ‘Nobody wants to touch plastic,’ to ‘Everybody wants
aluminum and stainless steel.’ Now, no one wants the aluminum and are looking more for the stainless steel,” said Paul Pickell, store manager at Moosejaw Mountaineering, 555 E. Grand River Ave..

Customer fluctuation started when a potential cancer-causing organic compound called bisphenol A, or BPA, was found in Nalgene brand plastic water bottles.

“That scared everyone away — we took all of our Nalgene bottles with BPA off of our shelves,” Pickell said, adding that after SIGG brand aluminum water bottles found BPA in the interior coating of their own bottles, people began demanding stainless steel.

Chemical engineering and materials science professor Lawrence Drzal said each material is environmentally friendly, but the differences come in the amount of energy used to manufacture and recycle the bottles.

Making stainless steel, for example, requires a lot of work and energy that potentially is harmful to the environment.

“You have to get the iron, you have to compound it, it goes through somehigh-temperature processes. On the other hand, the durability is outstanding,” Drzal said. “It would outlive you,”

Drzal said the process for making aluminum is very similar, but unlike stainless steel, aluminum is a much easier resource to reuse. Plastics also can be more environmentally safe if they are made from sustainable materials.

“There are a couple of plastics that are now made from corn oil or soybean oil and then you can make them into bottles. So they’re from a renewable, sustainable source,” Drzal said.

However, each material’s impact is not always enough to sway students.

“I’m looking for the coolest, most functional bottle I can,” English sophomore James Robinson said. “I think that if you’re going to buy something that’s going to last more than a year, or at least a month, at that point it’s not a huge deal.”