Well you lot are ever SO wasteful and don't you EVER complain about gas guzzling/energy wasting/environmental damaging green issues when you dare to contribute to them in this way.
Instead of purchasing a purpose built nalgene/sigg bottle that should last for years and using cheap and cheerful "disposable" plastic bottles instead, are you not guilty of assisting to pollute the planet with more carbon waste??
(Not to mention taking trade away from specialist outlets thus increasing their overheads giving us more reason to moan at prices)
As for weight, what are we, mice or men?
We are breeding a society of WIMPS! Get on with it for gawd's sake!!
I don't think anyone's mention these aspects yet. Juice bottles have narrow necks, after market ones generally have wide necks easier to clean and pee into. After market bottles are designed to be squeezed and return shape under their own steam, whereas juice ones crease after repeated use. Remember someone has designed and specified the materials for these items, the make the juice bottles a bit rubbish so you won't use them again and will buy more. I used to carry milk for my tea at work in a wee Irn Bru bottle, it lasted a couple of weeks because it got dented, creased and bashed and I couldn't risk it any longer and would change it. You guys must be being ulta careful on the move :o)
Hi Red yeti, I went out bottle shopping today. Didn,t like any of the Evian ones, as they are too sculptured, and thus liable to splits. BUT I did find a nice one litre bottle. It's a Tesco's premium lemonade one, its of the type that has a dome at the top and bottom, rather than the more stylish conical top. This bottle, minus label and security ring weighs 40 grammes. Good idea about using meths to remove the glue. I had always used lighter fluid, and accepted that it would slightly weaken the bottle long term! One thing that made me chuckle while out shopping, was all of our desires to have bomb proof water container's, while at the same time, probably carrying very breakable camera's in our pack's!. None of us jump up and down on our camera's to see if they will break. We just treat our packs with care, and don't throw them around too much. If push came to shove, I bet I could find water almost anywhere on the planet, and a lot quicker than it would take to find a working camera. Anyway, armed with my new bottle's I am happy in the knowledge that on my next walk, I can have a large swig, at no extra weight cost, and I will savour it!
good one Tony, and your smiley is noted. you could be right about wimpishness, but I can remember back having to carry a 66.8kg pack plus weapon and equipment, it was no fun. I still don't travel very light, but I love my comfort, so by saving weight on whatever I can, allows me to carry my coffee filter, or my "kite in a bag" or several cup-a-soups, just so have a choice at lunchtime. Stuff "headlamp envy". the look of jealousy on other walkers faces, when they see me with a FRESH brewed coffee, some cheddar cheese and crusty bread (sometimes with a drop of red wine too) mmmmm. And to prove how over to top I take my comfort, I even have a lightweight stainless steel "hiking" bread knife just to cut the bread.
Of course, none of this matters if you're not starting from the standpoint of trying to lose a bit of weight from your pack. If you are a hoary, old, heavyweight dinosaur then keep your Siggs and Nalgenes. Hell, carry your tea around in a tea chest if that's what floats your boat.
However, If you're trying to lose weight from your pack and maybe you've invested a few quid in a Tarptent Contrail or a Golite Jam 2 or whatever, and you persist in swigging your brew from a standard issue, stainlesss steel, WW2 army canteen then you need to look again at your priorities.
Lightweight backpackers are often accused of faddism and having more money than sense. This would be the case if we disregarded the weight savings that can be achieved very cheaply, such as by carrying pop bottles or, better still, leaving a specific item at home which is free and a 100% weight saving.
I realise Tony is winding us up so I will not persist with with my pop bottle/vegetarianism analogy! ;)
I was indeed intent on the "wind up" element there, but I am sure there are those out there with environmental tendencies who "might" see a serious argument about the "disposable" society that we have created in my post, hence the accentuated smiley!
Having said that of course, the potential for creating more "waste" doesn't sit particularly well with the local council taking away our weekly bin runs in favour of the fortnightly ones they have proposed, so maybe, there is a serious issue to address in there after all!
You can probably argue it both ways, but to me, re-using plastic bottles instead of causing a whole new one to be manufactured is more environmentally friendly. Well OK I had to buy mine specially but bear with me.
Maybe the big supermarkets should be making more of an effort and providing more recycling facilities (Tesco do take back their carries bags on home delivery orders - it's a token effort though really).
Going back to returnable glass bottles would probably be better, they could then be re-used which is always better than recycling.
Don't look now but I think this thread's starting to creep...
Lets not delve (creep) into recycling, as I for one am a bit of a non-believer in how we actually recycle stuff in the UK (as opposed to how we should). My local council transport all of my paper/card waste to north Wales to recycle it, rough journey of 310 miles (costing approx £175 in diesel + oil, plus emissions for the round trip). But plastic bottles are not collected, unless you go to the trouble to take them to a recycling centre yourself (more fuel), not to mention that bins are now only collected fortnightly (and I have not been given a green bin for card/garden stuff) So once a fortnight I take my own rubbish to the tip (where it isn't recycled) using more fuel, and paying higher council tax for the privilege. It just annoys that non sustainable oil based products are buried in a landfill, while paper/cotton etc. are recycled. Sorry to rant, but it bug's me. Apparently it only takes about twenty five 2litre bottles to make a fleece! I recycle all the time, In fact a lot of the furniture I sell, is made from recycled wood, and all of my artworks, are made from recycled materials. RANT OVER
