Steel bottles

In last few years there has been a lot of awareness towards sustainable living. I had been reading a lot about what can I do to make certain changes in my daily life so that I can contribute towards sustainability. One such change that was easily was switching to steel bottles.

Before talking about the Steel bottles let me first tell you about how it was since the childhood. When I was a child and I started going to the school we had visited or shop for buying tiffin and water bottle. A child who did not know much about the harm caused by plastic, I went ahead and chose the most colourful looking tiffin and water bottle. At that time all the school supplies would be made out of plastic. It was not even known that whether the plastic has been approved to be used for food and beverage. Yet that was the only option with us. All throughout my childhood I had used plastic bottles and tiffins.

When I was in college Tupperware was spreading its wings in India. I had received a Tupperware tiffin box from one of my relatives. It was plastic but it was food grade approved. It appeared to be a high quality plastic. After that my home was filled with various Tupperware items. There were tiffins, water bottles, tumblrs, jars, mugs, food containers in my home which were made by Tupperware. It was not just my house but almost all middle class households would have plethora of items from Tupperware. These products would be advertised as eco friendly. They would say that these products are reusable and they can be recycled into making new plastic items. This products made all mothers happy because they looked to good and were easy to clean. They also made the younger generation happy because it was supposed to be eco friendly. Tupperware would last several years without losing its colour. However the students who have studied science would definitely know how plastic leaches. I was desperate to search for an alternative which would be sustainable and can replace the Tupperware plastic at my home.

Glass was never an alternative because of its potential to break (because we have Butterfingers). But then I stumbled upon the item that I loved the most. I found Steel bottles on the online portal from where I shop. The Steel bottles had a lot of advantage over the plastic bottles. First advantage was that the Steel is non reactive and it does not react with food. It definitely is much safer than plastic. Second advantage was durability. If the Steel hits the ground it would not change its shape or break. This is where it is superior than glass. And of course Steel does not cause pollution like plastic. I understood this and decided to switch to the Steel bottles.

One by one I replaced each plastic bottle which was there in my home with steel bottles. Now my home does not have a single plastic bottle. My second initiative was to gift Steel bottles to my relatives. On the occasion of Diwali I had gifted Steel bottles to my cousins as well as nephews and nieces. Everyone was delighted to receive artistically painted Steel bottles without realising that it was a sustainable initiative.

This was my initiative towards sustainability. I hope you begin small changes towards sustainability as well.