Skip to content

When A Teen Goes Green

About an eco-positive lifestyle

Menu
  • Home
    • What is an eco-positive lifestyle?
    • New? Start here!
  • How to guides
  • Reducing negative impact
    • Veganism
    • Minimalism
    • Zero Waste
    • Sustainable Traveling
    • Sustainable and Fair Fashion
    • Intersectional Feminism
    • Circular Economy
    • The 9 Planetary Boundaries
  • Increasing positive impact
  • Inspiration
    • Recipes
    • Hotspots
    • Organizations and apps
    • Books, documentaries, films, series and podcasts
    • Books, Films and Series List
  • Personal
    • My Ideal World
    • About me and this blog
Menu
a zero waste alternative to single-use bottles

A zero waste alternative to single-use bottles

Posted on October 24, 2016April 22, 2022

A drinking bottle. Most people I know have one. You can buy different sorts, in different sizes. It’s an amazing alternative to single-use bottles. A reusable bottle is an item which I always carry with me in my bag, it is a zero waste essential. Today I am telling you more about it.

Why Recycling isn’t the Solution

Recycling is a weird process for single-use items, absurd if you ask me! You hand in your old bottle for recycling (or not, and so it will be burned or end up in the oceans, an even worse option if you’d ask me), this bottle is brought somewhere to be collected (hi, carbon emissions), this bottle get ‘recycled’ (I put this in quotation marks since plastic can’t be recycled, it down-cycles), this down-cycling takes a lot of resources like water and energy (and creates waste and more carbon emissions), this bottle then travels again to a manufacturer of plastic, then oil is subtracted to make new plastic, a new plastic bottle is made and at last you buy yet again another plastic bottle. You drink the water in the bottle and the whole process starts again. Absurd, because this can all be prevented.

Alternative to Single-Use Bottles

Wherever I go, I bring a reusable bottle with me in my bag. This means I don’t ever have to buy single-use plastic bottles anywhere. Single-use items are not-done in my opinion, we simply don’t need them. There is clean water coming out of the tap! I’ve been drinking that water since I was born and yes, I am still alive. Tap water in The Netherlands is more than fine.

I am currently using an old coffee-can as a drinking bottle. Nothing new, and maybe even more important, not entirely made out of plastic! It is mostly made out of stainless steel (except for the handles). When my old drinking bottle broke I was looking for an alternative. And since buying new stuff is the most harmful thing for our planet, I went to look for a secondhand bottle. And I found one in my own home, one which nobody was using. Perfect!

There are a few great initiatives for reusable bottles, like Kleen Kanteen, available at WAAR in The Netherlands. My recommendation would be to go for a plastic free brand, stainless steel is 100% recyclable and lasts a lifetime. But most important: choose secondhand. That is the most sustainable option.

In this article you can read why I hate plastic altogether. But for this subject I feel: plastic is just not necessary. Also, there is too much plastic ending up in the oceans already.

About the waste?
The old situation:
– About 365 plastic bottles of waste each year

The new situation:
– Zero waste!

Money

Another great plus: you save money! By making an investment once you don’t ever have to buy a plastic bottles again. In The Netherlands it is estimated that tap water is 210 times cheaper than bottled water. Also, there are many free tap points at stations and city centers.

Do you use a reusable bottle?

Yours sincerely,
Romee

33 thoughts on “A zero waste alternative to single-use bottles”

  1. Pingback: Die ene vriend waar je altijd mee luncht – When A Teen Goes Green
  2. Pingback: Wat je moet weten over geplande veroudering en een kijktip: The Light Bulb Conspiracy – When A Teen Goes Green
  3. Pingback: Een vork, mes en lepel voor onderweg – When A Teen Goes Green
  4. Pingback: Mijn eerste weekoverzicht! – When A Teen Goes Green
  5. Pingback: Vervolg: Evaluatie op Sziget – When A Teen Goes Green
  6. Pingback: Kijktip: Bag It, en wat tips van mij – When A Teen Goes Green
  7. Pingback: Weekoverzicht #27: een nieuwe laptop? – When A Teen Goes Green
  8. Pingback: What’s in my bag? – When A Teen Goes Green
  9. Pingback: Weekoverzicht #32: ‘nieuwe’ tweedehands kleding! – When A Teen Goes Green
  10. Pingback: Waarom heb ik eigenlijk zo’n hekel aan (vooral single-use) plastic? – When A Teen Goes Green
  11. Pingback: I went thrift shopping! What did I buy? – When A Teen Goes Green
  12. Pingback: Weekly diary #82: Voting for a regional election! – When A Teen Goes Green
  13. Pingback: Weekly diary #93: Donating some plasma – When A Teen Goes Green
  14. Pingback: Documentary about bottled water: Tapped – When A Teen Goes Green
  15. Pingback: Lunching zero waste with a lunch box – When A Teen Goes Green
  16. Pingback: This harms the environment: flying – When A Teen Goes Green
  17. Pingback: My preparations for Sziget 2017 – When A Teen Goes Green
  18. Pingback: Documentary about waste: Bag It (and 4 tips from me) – When A Teen Goes Green
  19. Pingback: Weekly diary #23: I celebrated Christmas – When A Teen Goes Green
  20. Pingback: What’s in my bag? – When A Teen Goes Green
  21. Pingback: Weekly diary #32: ‘new’ secondhand clothing! – When A Teen Goes Green
  22. Pingback: Weekly diary #33: spending a whole week in an empty building – When A Teen Goes Green
  23. Pingback: Weekly diary #36: a nasty Phishing-mail – When A Teen Goes Green
  24. Pingback: News + what you can do about it | December 2020 – When A Teen Goes Green
  25. Pingback: Weekly diary #40: in one day to Zipper, Marbles Vintage, Vegabond and Delicious Food in Amsterdam! – When A Teen Goes Green
  26. Pingback: Thrift haul- February 2019 – When A Teen Goes Green
  27. Pingback: Zero Waste Lunching - When A Teen Goes Green
  28. Pingback: My first weekly diary! - When A Teen Goes Green
  29. Pingback: Personal Sustainability Evaluation of Sziget - When A Teen Goes Green
  30. Pingback: Weekly diary #82: Voting for a regional election! | When A Teen Goes Green
  31. Pingback: Documentary: Tapped | When A Teen Goes Green
  32. Pingback: Eco-positive weekly diary #137: taking a COVID-19 test
  33. Pingback: Eco-positive weekly diary #140: a mistake concerning Frida Kahlo

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search for anything

Want to get an update every time I post something?

Enter your email address to subscribe to my blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 269 other subscribers.

ABOUT ME

 

Hi! My name is Romee Hoeksma and I am on a journey to an eco-positive life. An eco-positive lifestyle is a lifestyle in which I have a more positive than negative impact on the beautiful planet earth. On this blog you can follow my journey to a life with only positive impact. At this blog you can find all sorts of things, from tips to recipes to personal experiences, but most of all fun (I hope!). I write about how I want to change the world, but don’t look at it as if I’m judging you. If anything, I like responses from my dear readers the most, so don’t hesitate to contact me or respond to any of my posts!

Yours sincerely,
Romee

Here’s what I posted most recently

  • The last secondhand clothing inspiration of 2022
  • Dieting distracts us
  • Documentary: I am Greta
  • 5 things I don’t buy
  • My positive impact in 2022

Translate this site

Follow me on Instagram

Ik gebruik al jaren een bamboe tandenborstel, die van Humble Brush 🎋. Naast dat hun product duurzaam is, doen ze ook wat moois met de winst. Dat maakt een product nou echt eco-positief! Je leest meer over poetsen met bamboe op mijn blog, via de link in mijn bio. Vandaag op de blog: iets waarbij de relatie met eco-positief leven wat indirect is: diëten. Januari is dé maand waarin veel mensen weer aan het diëten slaan en daarom leek het me goed om deze post nog net op de valreep in januari te delen. De blog van vandaag gaat slechts over één van de vele nadelen van diëten: het leidt ons af van wat echt belangrijk is 🧐. Weten waarom ik dat denk? Lees dan nu het artikel via de link in mijn bio. Ik ga dit jaar weer de challenge aan om de winter door te komen zonder de warming aan te zetten. Hiervoor ging mijn essential, een warmwaterkruik 💦, kapot. In deze reel laat ik je zien hoe ik een ‘nieuwe’ tweedehands kruik kocht. Vandaag te lezen op whenateengoesgreen.com: een inspirerende documentary over Greta Thunberg: I am Greta. Een documentaire over hoop, maar vooral over doorzettingsvermogen 🔥. Lees het nu via de link in mijn bio. Meer vegan producten in de schappen, yay! Gisteren probeerde ik voor het eerst de vegan lentil tikki masala saus van Patak’s 🧑🏼‍🍳. Zie in deze reel wat ik ervan vond. Vandaag verscheen er een nieuw artikel op mijn blog over: 5 dingen die ik niet koop. Want we denken vaak dat we dingen écht nodig hebben, maar vaak is dat niet zo 🧠. Check het artikel via de link in miijn bio. Vorige week verscheen er een artikel op mijn blog over alles wat ik nieuw kocht in 2022. Dat is een groot deel van mijn negatieve impact. Deze week was het tijd om te kijken naar de andere kant van de medaille. Vandaag lees je op mijn blog een artikel over al mijn positive impact in 2022 🌞. Je vind de link naar het artikel in de link in mijn bio. Afgelopen week verscheen er op mijn blog een artikel over alles wat ik nieuw heb gekocht in 2022. Eén ding op de lijst waren deze onderbroeken (een stuk of 20). En nu denk je misschien: waarom zou je in één keer zoveel onderbroeken kopen? Op 31 december, nog net op de valreep in 2022, kwam er een video online op mijn Youtube-kanaal over voedselcoöperaties. Ik denk namelijk dat voedselcoöperaties ons voedselsysteem democratischer en eerlijker kunnen maken 🥦.

Read my latest posts

  • The last secondhand clothing inspiration of 2022
  • Dieting distracts us
  • Documentary: I am Greta
  • 5 things I don’t buy
  • My positive impact in 2022

Subscribe by e-mail

©2023 When A Teen Goes Green | WordPress Theme by Superbthemes.com