When it comes to bottles, plastic bottles are the most prevalent. Plastic bottles are cheap to manufacture and very convenient to use. Only until recently, people start to learn about the dangers of plastic bottles. The biggest danger has been bisphenol A, or BPA, which is used in the manufacturing of plastic bottles. BPA may lead to damages to the brain, reproductive organs, and even cancer.
So what are the alternatives to plastic bottles? Stainless steel and glass are the top choices, they are safe to reuse and can promote less plastic waste in the environment. However, one of the biggest problems with glass bottles is that they break easily, shattering into many pieces and may cause harm to others. This limits the choice when consumers shop for bottles.
Walt Himelstein came up with a solution.
As an environmental chemist, Mr. Himelstein worked with hazardous materials. Those hazardous materials were transported in glass bottles with an exterior coating that is shatter-resistant. He wondered why not apply this to technology to glass water bottles, so he invented a coating for glass bottles and developed the Pure Bottle.
A shatter-resistant glass bottle developed by Walt Himelstein
More and more people are aware and being proactive about sustainability, thanks to shatter-resistant glass bottles, we now we have more choice when it comes to choose between plastic, metal and glass bottles.
For the full article published in The New York Times on June 20, 2012, click here.
