Toxic Swap: Plastic for Stainless Steel
This post is in partner with Healthy Human. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Please read my disclaimer page for more information.
One of things I didn’t know until I really took the time to learn was what exactly is in plastic. I am specifically asking about plastic containers and plastic water bottles (refillable and disposable). The biggest issue with using plastic is that it exposes you to harmful toxins that leach from the products. Even when using it for drinking, you’re drinking water but the chemicals in the bottles – especially when heated like left in the car – get dumped directly into the water. If you use reusable plastic water bottles and put them in the dishwasher, the high heat allows the BPA and other toxins to absorb into your bloodstream.
What exactly is the harm of these chemicals absorbing into your body? It can cause a range of problems including different cancers, liver and kidney damage. Even the “BPA-free” plastic water bottles still contain a common component called Type 7 plastic. This acts as a fake estrogen and when consumed can cause infertility issues, birth defects and developmental disabilities. Another thing that I want to help make everyone aware of issues associated with diabetes. Who would have ever of thought that plastic water bottles could lead to diabetes? There are tests that show that people who drink a lot of bottled water, and in particular those who had high concentrations of BPA in their urine, were three times more likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease, and were 2.4 times more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than individuals with low concentrations of BPA in their bodies. Even BHPF, a compound which is now being used in many plastic bottles instead of BPA, has been found to have dangerous side-effects similar to that of BPA. The bad news is that there hasn’t been enough long term research yet to fully understand what this can do to us as humans but we do know so far that the above mentioned are very common issues that people are dealing with so far.
Outside of the health issues that can be caused from using plastic, we are also causing a world wide issue in our environment. Even though most people know this, they still don’t give up their easy to purchase water bottles. American’s use an average of 50 billion plastic water bottles a year; and while recycling is more accessible than ever, 90% of plastic water bottles are not recycled after use, meaning that billions of plastic bottles are entering our landfills, and even our oceans, every year. In fact, so much plastic waste makes it into our oceans that it is estimated that over a million marine animals are killed by plastic waste each year, often due to accidental plastic ingestion.
For these reasons combined, we have chosen to switch to safer and not use plastic water bottles any longer. We installed a water filtration system in our home (you can read more about that here) so we have daily access to clean water and we purchased stainless steel cups for our entire family.
Stainless steel is great for many reasons… the other safe and non toxic route is glass but since we have small kids I didn’t think that was the smartest idea to incorporate right now. Also, glass sweats when it has cold liquid in it. We love supporting locally owned businesses so when I came across the company Healthy Human that is based out of Charleston, SC I got really excited and purchased a few of their tumblers to test out. Turns out, they are AMAZING and keep your beverages cold or hot for several hours.
The Healthy Human tumblers also do not sweat which is another reason why I love them. Of course, they are a higher price point than plastic cups so it’s taken me about 4 years to completely switch out all of our cups to them instead of plastic or glass. Derrek was also very resistant to using them until he found that I threw out all the plastic and this is all we had left. He put his drink in one and was amazed at how long it stayed cold. He’s been hooked ever since. For the kids, we went with a cheaper option the Healthy Human Stainless Steel Cups. They are not insulated like the tumblers but they keep beverages cold and our kids can easily use them.
I know that switching to safer cannot happen overnight for most people, it surely did not happen that way for myself and my family. I can say that making small changes really do add up to make a big impact and I want to challenge you to start changing out things in your life to reduce your toxic load. As I mentioned above, it has taken me about 4 years to completely destash all the plastic we were using but man it feels amazing to be completed and using safer. You can purchase Healthy Human on their website or on Amazon, if you purchase via their website, you can use code: LSWIFE10 for 10% off of your order. Please share with me if you order, I would love to see what you buy and hear how you like it!
