Throw out your #7s
My boyfriend has been complaining for months about the smell of my Nalgene water bottle. Best friend told me, it’s just old, that’s unavoidable. So I finally decided to replace it, but bf could not find them at Superstore. I read on Mercola tonight a confusing article, but understood his comments about safe(r) plastics.
Plastics that are safer to use for storing food and beverages, none of which are known to leach harmful substances include:
Polypropylene, designated “#5 PP”
High-density polyethylene, designated “#2HDPE”
Low-density polyethylene, designated “#4 LDPE”
I was thankful, then, to find out that all our plastic containers are #5 PP. My water bottle, unfortunately, just says #7, and it’s getting old. It’s Lexan. I can’t tell if it has discoloured because it’s grey! (Say no to Lexan and polycarbonate!!!) It’s not going to kill me but I feel a little uneasy. I still used (and re-used, once) bottled water we bought on our trip. We ended up buying 3 and didn’t use as much on the way home. My 500mL bottle gets used up very quickly between the two of us and it was unfortunate that we didn’t have two more, but at least we had cold water!
I re-used your good old basic thin plastic water bottles for YEARS, from elementary school through to at least grade 10. I don’t know how old my Nalgene bottle is, but maybe 3 years old. Gross… time to be replaced.
The best, they say, is still glass… but it’s heavy and it breaks, so it’s not that practical for use when I go out. Mercola made a good point, though, about the style of Nalgene bottle you might get: the wide-mouth ones can be CLEANED! I find it very comfortable to drink out of, although the biggest ones (1L) are a bit large. Great for day-long excursions and road trips, though.
We’ll see if I can find them tomorrow, hm? And good thing, too, that we didn’t get Lexan ones again because it’s entirely possible they’re not safe, or at least in the long run. The safer, but less trendy HDPE ones are cheaper on their website than the polycarbonate. I’d rather know that I’m not damaging my body than look cool with a water bottle in tow.
Any more evidence?