I really like that term, greenwashing. It’s the perfect way to describe what went on with SIGG water bottles:
“Last week, SIGG Switzerland, the makers of popular aluminum reusable water bottles — a must-have accessory for the fashionably eco-friendly set — admitted that prior to August 2008, their bottles contained the chemical Bisphenol-A (BPA).”
About about two years ago, when BPA first started appearing on people’s radar, people started buying SIGG bottles like crazy because they are aluminum. Therefore they don’t contain that harmful chemical associated with plastic, right? WRONG. Apparently SIGG bottles are lined with plastic, and that plastic contained BPA until one year ago.
So here’s a case where I guess I am lucky that I’ve been unable to afford the latest fad green item. I picked up a couple of cheap BPA-free plastic water bottles at Target that we use. I have to say though that I even eye BPA-free plastic with suspicion. They replaced BPA with something, right? Is it entirely possible that they replaced it with some other chemical that, in 5 years, will be exposed as carcinogenic?
What I really want to do is to just stop using plastic altogether and drink water out of a glass container. The beauty of this is I could, for example, just use a quart-size canning jar. Super cheap and chemical free, plus infinitely, easily recyclable. Unlike plastic, which is hard or sometimes even impossible to recycle. Note that I said “I want to” … I haven’t made this change yet. It’s something in my hopefully-near future, but I’m not there yet.
The crappy thing about this business with SIGG was that they enjoyed a huge windfall based on misinformation about their product, and did nothing to correct the situation, for well over a year. Read the entire article right here.
Stacking Functions Garden 
March 9, 2010 at 10:48 am
Hi Fur,
Dave sent me a link to your blog–and I’m so in love with it! We’re trying to make the same sorts of changes around our house–but we’re just getting started. I’m so excited to have this great resource to help us along! My mom just called this morning and told me all the new horrors of plastic she heard about today on the news…I’m not sure what new study came out–but something did–so I was wondering if you have any thoughts on reducing plastic use for kids. Do you still give your kids plastic cups–or only water bottles? Do you give your kids glass cups at home–and at what age do you think that’s safe? Thanks for knowing lots!
Jen
March 9, 2010 at 3:02 pm
Hey Jen! Nice to hear from you. As you can imagine, the plastic thing is really hard with kids. Our kids eat off our regular ceramic plates most of the time, but they still drink out of plastic glasses. I read somewhere that the whole “leaching” thing is worse with hot foods than cold — and usually they are drinking something cold so I try not to worry too much about it.
Another thing I’ve been trying to do is use tupperware-like containers less for storing leftovers. Or if I do use them, I transfer the food to a ceramic bowl before microwaving. Kind of a pain, yes? We have all these pint- and quart-size glass jars around now so I’ve been trying to use those more.
It’s a long process though, that’s for sure. The more I read about plastic, the less I want anything to do with it.
OK, I’m going on and on. Take care and thanks for checking in!