Not all water bottles are created equal.

When it comes to buying liquids, like water, juice, milk, condiments, sauces... here are a few good rules to remember.

• NO PLASTIC: when you buy water (or any other liquid) in a plastic bottle, you have no idea how long that water sat in there, how hot the bottle sat in the sun or a heated truck or whatever place it may have been before it got to you. When plastic heats up, it leaches its, shall we say, "good stuff" into the food or liquids that it holds. Plus, when you are done with the bottle, even if you recycle it, you still have to throw out the cap into the trash or somewhere. And recycling DOES consume energy and fuel as well. Yes, recycling a bottle is better than trashing it, but better still is to be able to use something that you can keep and re-use.
• STAINLESS STEEL: talking about reusing, this is a bottle you can use and reuse "forever". It is the safest choice out there.
• GLASS: another one to use, and reuse, forever. Until breakage do us part.
• BPA-FREE EXERCISE BOTTLES: sometimes you do need or want a plastic bottle. There are plastic bottles out there that say "BPA-free", like the ones that you find in bike/running shops or these days, in most stores. Camel has some good ones, and I have purchased one of those, but I must admit I don't know at this point what "else" these bottles may contain. I guess the safest is always stainless.
• CARTONS: you know why they cannot be recycled? They are lined with plastic...
• SIGG BOTTLES: stay away from their aluminum bottles. The older ones, which you can still buy by mistake (stores trying to get rid of inventory), have BPA in them. The new ones have a coating that chips away at the neck of the bottle, where the cap screws in. It happened to a bottle I got for my daughter, and when I researched on the net, I found that it was happening to other people as well. I called Sigg and complained about it, and they did not respond. They refused to issue a refund for my old (BPA lined) bottles as well, since they say that there is nothing wrong with them, and that they were never "recalled". Of course they were not recalled, but every single person that bought them 2 years ago, bought them because they were worried about BPA in their plastic and believed that Sigg was a good alternative. Sigg knew that they contained BPA, but chose not to tell its customers. I call that, excuse my English, really shitty business, and deceiving at best. I know stores that refuse to carry any Sigg, even their stainless steel bottles, because of the way that Sigg has conducted itself towards its customers. Nice going, Sigg. Still waiting for an answer on my old bottles.