In a nutshell – I’m giving up one use water bottles and hunting for the perfect alternative reusable bottle.
Sparked off by the Ikea Live LAGOM project, which is helping some very lucky people to live more sustainable lifestyles, I’ve decided to give up one-use water bottles and move over to resuable bottles. At the Live LAGOM induction, Ikea gave us a little package of goodies which included a rather nice reusable bottle. Like everything new and interesting that comes into the house, my teenager promptly swiped it. He really likes the way the top fits (little things make us happy!). He likes the texture of the little crosses on the body of the bottle. It feels strong and well built, it’s useful size holds just over a pint and the Ikea website say it can be recycled!
Although perfect for my swiping son, I was looking for a reusable bottle with a sports cap I could keep in the car and something smaller to carry in my bag.
Swapping graphic design for eco friendly goodies
As well as less-stuff I also run Naked Website Design and one of the people I design graphics for is Boobalou who specialise in eco friendly solutions for day to day living. In the spirit of sustainability we did a swap – I made her some new graphics for her website and in return got a very exciting package of gorgeous and useful things including two Klean Kanteen reusable bottles.
The first bottle is supposed to be for kids but fits perfectly in my bag. The second is taller, for the car. I also got a spare sports cap.
This is how the bottles look on the website.
Firstly I need to tell you how impressed I was with Boobalou’s speed of delivery and the packaging. I opted for eco-friendly packaging and it all came in a cardboard box with brown paper to protect the order. The packaging for the bottles was minimal and recyclable too.
The photos of the bottles on the website are quite stunning and I wasn’t expecting them to look much like that in real life – I thought clever lighting was doing a good job.
In real life, these bottles are incredibly gorgeous. They gleam in an almost luxurious manner, they feel nice to hold and even nice to use. The larger bottle is called the Reflect and it is made from just 3 materials, shiny stainless steel, bamboo for the lid and food-grade silicone for the seal. The smaller one has a brushed steel exterior and a green sports cap. I also got a spare black sports cap.
I’ve swapped over the lids of the bottles – giving me a larger bottle with a sports cap to use in the car, and a smaller, handy handbag sized one. In retrospect I didn’t need to get a spare sports cap but it will come in handy – the only downside of the gorgeous bamboo topped screw lid is that it is noisy. Next time I take my small bottle to the cinema I’ll put it’s sports cap back on.
The other downside is that my swiping son has decided the larger one is the perfect bottle for keeping beside his bed. I am hiding the small one from him.
Here are the bottles in real life. Photo taken on a freezing cold day under totally natural light.
I’m looking forward to seeing how this will change my shopping habits and hopefully stop me buying bottles of water. I just need to get into the habit of checking the small bottle is filled and in my bag, just like checking I have my phone or keys.
Conclusion
The Klean Kanteen reusable bottles are not cheap – you are looking at spending around £14 for the smallest size. However, I often get thirsty in places where water is only to be found in single use bottles that cost £1 a go and I’d regularly spend a quid on a 6 pack of cheaper water from a supermarket. These new bottles are built to last and will start saving me money very soon. In a year I was probably throwing away at least 100 one use bottles so the impact on landfill is going to be quite substantial, just from one reusable bottle.
Disclosure – Ikea are giving me a £300 voucher to blog about living more sustainably with their products as part of their Live LAGOM project. Boobalou and I did a fair swap of work for products and I have not been paid by them to review Klean Kanteen bottles.