EarthBottle: Quest for the Greenest Drinking Bottle

I am excited about our new water bottle innovation that turns three pollution problems into one opportunity. Where I live we too many plastic water bottles, no recycling for glass bottles, and only imported made-in-China water bottles. However, by connecting these 'problems' we've come up with a beautiful solution: a locally sourced, locally crafted, beautiful glass personal water bottle.

This is an innovation I have been working on the last year. It's so simple it's almost ridiculous... But hear me out ok?

My friends at Trash Hero Indonesia, who do beach clean ups, have this great initiative in Thailand where they sell stainless steel water bottles and encourage local businesses to give free water to any visitor who come in with said water bottle. They presented this idea in Bali, where I live, to start locally as a way to transcend plastic bottle use.

It's a great idea. Yet, those bottles are made in China from mined metal, then shipped all the way over here to Indonesia. Yes, it's better than using plastic bottles every day, but....

I know for a fact that there is a vast abundance of glass bottles here in Bali that can't be recycled. The recycling centers are full of all these gorgeous wine, liquor and spirit bottles. They don't know what to with them-- other than ship them to the landfill or crush them for sand. It's a crazy waste of energy, beauty and... opportunity.

I've been experimenting using these glass bottles for my own water bottle for the last year. Its been great, simple, non-toxic, low-energy, person water solution. As I have used them however, it's become clear that although practical, they have their down sides: heavy, fragile, and ugly caps. However, these aren't that big of deal-- afterall, the big trend in health stores for manufactured water bottles is actually glass! People want to get away from plastic.

So, to address the concerns we've revamped the recycled glass bottle with the following innovations:

• Simple attached cork top
• Rubber protective sleave made from motor cycle inner tube. This protects from tip overs
• Big sand blasted logo: makes it clear that the bottle isn't an alcohol bottle
• Sandblasted Theme icons: makes the philosophy and ethic behind the bottle clear
• Optional cutting down the top neck of the bottle to a more compact size.

Stay posted as this innovation evolves. I am super excited to pick up the latest prototypes next week.