i was reading the box because of exactly what you said above, had thought the same!
Most likely PLA. polylactic acid derived from starch.
Ripping the plastic you will end up with small threads or pieces of it in your drink
And then there is also "sneaky plastic" in places people may not expect, e.g. in "bamboo" mugs that are mostly resin. So exactly the kind of mug that people may buy to avoid plastic ones... :/
Many homes in the US have wells so this generally doesn’t apply evenly to everyone.
Finally, it’s an exercise in harm reduction.
Investigate getting a reverse osmosis home water machine installed under your kitchen sink, and ensuring the tubing coming out of it all the way to the faucet is metallic.
Wait, was european bottled water cheaper than american bottled water in California or am I misunderstanding this? That would be kinda insane, IMO :D
[0]: Saratoga (https://sswc.com/)
[1]: Mountain Valley Spring (https://www.mountainvalleyspring.com/)
[2]: Starkey (https://starkeywater.com/)
(Those gallon jugs look really cool, though, never seen such massive glass bottles. But my god must they be heavy! :D)
Even drinking water from lead pipes is safe as long as there aren't failures that cause the lead to get carried away by the water. Same with asbestos building materials, etc. Just touching a toxic substance doesn't necessarily poison you.
Life expectancy is a bad measure for two reasons.
1). The major bump in life expectancy of the 20th century is largely due to the number of infants that survive compared to the past.
2). We wouldn't see a decline in life expectancy that's due to exposure in womb until said children were of an age that mattered.
Not to mention pure quality of life issues.
This is terrible logic. If something causes deafness, blindness, or missing toes it will not affect life expectancy.
Additionally, suppose in same year a drug against cancer i.proves life expectancy by 5 years and plastic pollution causes it to go down by 5 years - so you will never find out.
Would you consider underdeveloped male fetuses a harmful consequence?
Because we have some pretty strong evidence that Bisphenols are causing exactly that.
Change has to come first as an informed choice. Once a critical, educated mass rejects a harmful product, a consensus to say "you can't sell that" can be sought.
Problem is, as we've seen with oil, unhealthy foods, and now digital technologies, big, rich and influential companies will throw whatever money it takes to undermine research and messaging to disrupt rational choice from taking place. That's very frustrating.
I mean the harmful effects of smartphones are what radiation that we can find no effects in rats ? Or is it social media ? I am more dubious as to that being social media fault (as opposed to "hey we have taken every pub conversation on the planet and made it available to anyone on the planet. Imagine listening to Einstein and Dirac as they walk home from Princeton each day. Oh wait there are a lot more drunk aholes screaming about immigration than Einsteins in the world - who knew"
Smart regulation there simply says "you are not a common carrier, but if you make a choice to show one post to a user and not show another post then ... that makes you a publisher"
Will it destroy business models - yes. But that's not the same as destroying the social value of recording every human to every human
It's mostly the desire to save a few pennies per product that drove plastic.
There are several brands in Europe now that sell water in aluminum cans rather than plastic bottles.
While traveling, plastic-contained beverages are almost all that is available. 100% of the drinking water on a commercial flight is in plastic. 100% of the drinking water in airport vending machines, etc.
You can "take your own water with you" for those, for the amount that it matters to this discussion. It's not going to be literally your own water — generally speaking, TSA will force one to dump "dangerous" water into a giant trash bin in the middle of the checkpoint¹ — but you can normally refill the bottle once inside the secure area from a water fountain. Now … it might be tap, unfiltered, the local jurisdiction might be bad at water, IDK. But it's not quite an entirely lost cause.
Specifically, an empty reusable water bottle can traverse the security checkpoint. (We own some mostly non-plastic ones, too.)
¹comically, we were once forced to discard water that came from within the secured zone at the checkpoint.
My point is that drinking out of plastic is basically unavoidable in many circumstances. It isn't a choice we make.
But regardless, IV solutions are manufactured and stored for months in plastic bags.
I think you’re understating what we know about safety.
What does that tell you about risks?
I, and I presume most consumers, have a number of values we are always trading off when making purchases, but any single items ranking on those tradeoffs is usually obfuscated other than price.
However, you have to deal with the risk of misplacing it, theft, destruction, moving without taking it, etc. All of these risks make the value of the reusable bottle possibly better but the low cost of the plastic one use bottles are a real benefit that can be immediately realized
To be completely honest, reducing plastic packaging seems impossible to do right now, the economic impact would be so huge.
Copper is toxic though. Especially bad with acidic drinks which a lot are.