Fast food, drive – thrus, microwaves, portable technology. If you live in society today chances are you like everything the way I do…. On the go! So why should your drinking water be any different? Bottled water companies and manufacturers have made it so easy to make your drinking water as portable as your iPhone. Whether you’re paying tons of money a month on cases of bottled water or you have a convineint “on the go” bottle that you refill through out the day. Either way, you have portable drinking water. Now the question is what is your method to this portable drinking water madness? Is it a plastic, hopefully BPA free water bottle or is it a shiny dishwasher safe stainless steel one? Lets see how they hold up against each other in today’s match up of Stainless vs. Plastic.

I’m sure most of you will cringe at the thought of a plastic bottle that is not BPA free, although we don’t have to worry as much now, they are still out there! Bisphenol-A (BPA) a few years ago was brought to manufactuers attention as a chemical linked to causing hormone sensitive cancers. Manufactuers quickly changed production to remove this chemical from their bottles, however there is a chance there are still bottles in circulation that may contain BPA. Have you ever noticed those suspcisious little numbers on the bottom of your plastic drinking bottles? These numbers can tell you a lot about whether you should be reusing your current bottle. A 1 means you can recycle your bottle, but you cannot reuse it due to the possibility of bacteria build up. A 2, 4 or 5 means that your bottle is safe to reuse, but typically won’t stand up to repeated washing and may hold odors and stains. Yuck! A 3, 6 or 7 means that your bottle may leach BPA! Didn’t want to hear that did you? Now don’t get me wrong, I am not against plastic bottles at all! In fact, part of my everyday wardrobe is my handy dandy cute and pink BPA free water bottle. A reusable plastic water bottle is probably the way to go if plastic is your thing. They are mostly dishwasher safe and easy to carry around on a daily basis.

Stainless steel bottles on the other hand, are just as easy and convinient to carry around, but they don’t seem to be as fashionable as the colorful plastic reuasble bottles. Stainless bottle manufactuers are coming out with more designs and colors as these bottles become more popular, but for now, if fashion is a concern for your water bottle, these may not be for you. Lets look at their strong points! Steel bottles do not contain chemicals or toxins (Yay! No BPA scares), they too are mostly dishwasher safe and these things last forever. Well, unless your clumsy and tend to drop them in which case they will dent and probably the tops will eventually break. If the stainless steel bottle does let you down you can always recycle it and get another. These bottles tend to be a little bit more expensive than plastic bottles, but they do last longer. Another pro to these stainless steel water bottles is they actually help keep the temperature of your water, probably doesn’t help too much in the summertime though!

So there you have it! Either you are running to the store to change your method of portable water madness or you’re sleeping at your computer, either way, I will be sticking with my pink, fashionable BPA free plastic water bottle for now. Unless for some reason manufactuers come out with a hot pink stainless steel water bottle!