I'm back to packing daily lunches and snacks for my son, and bought two 12-packs of little 8-ounce Poland Spring bottles. I know that bottled water is hideously expensive, marketed with dubious pretenses, and bad bad bad for the environment, but I rationalized that I'd re-use each bottle a couple of times, and mitigate each aspect somewhat.
Silly, silly me. Turns out that THESE TOPS DON'T UNSCREW. I tried every day the first week, figuring this is some child-safety design and I just need to focus and apply a little squeeze to some secret spot. Nope -- they are one-time-use only! In the fine, fine print, they tell you that the cap is non-removable by design, to protect children from choking hazards. But wouldn't flip-tops protect just as well?
So I figured I'd just use suction and pressure through the twist-open nozzle, and then empty and re-fill the bottles. Wrong-o, yet again. They are made of thin-walled plastic that does not snap back into shape. Once crushed, crushed forever. "Better for the environment," they say, where it "takes up less space in landfills" -- where they will stay, FOREVER, and never degrade.
Plus, the water is flouridated, which is not necessarily beneficial for people who already have flouridated water, as our town does.
Frankly, I suspect that Nestle (owner of the Poland Spring brand) didn't like losing sales to themselves when people would re-fill and re-use their bottles. I do know that chemicals from the plastics can leach into the drinking water, but I would doubt that that is a significant risk for bottles that are re-used a few times (often over the course of a single afternoon).
It really, really bothers me that they are touting this bottle as a way to keep our children "safe" with 1.) the permanent cap, 2.) perma-crush bottle, and 3.) superfluous flouride, when ultimately, it will contribute to the waste and pollution that will diminish quality of life around the planet. Hypocritical, and in my opinion, evil.
And now I'm stuck with 20 of the little stinkers.
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