Otter Bottle Review!

Otter Bottle is a Canadian company (yay!) that was started by a young mom to fulfill her desire for re-useable, BPA-free, stylish and safe bottles. Otter Bottles are 100% stainless steel (no plastic lining) with a #5 plastic lid. They are designed for cold liquids.
A very short while ago I was the lucky winner on Optimistic Beauty's blog - I won an Otter Bottle. I loved the look of the Yellow Green Flower Power bottle! We go hiking a lot and the 500 mL size is perfect for me - light enough to carry yet it holds enough to quench my thirst. Well, it arrived today and I had some thoughts that I wanted to share with you about the bottle.

First off I was happy to see that the mailer was 100% recycled and recyclable! It was a padded envelope made from paper fiber.

The bottle itself is just like the image on the website. Very pretty, very "me" pattern, and the paint looks like it's solidly on there and not about to chip or wear off any time soon. The bottle comes with two lids, both threaded to screw on: a lid with a closeable drinking tube (and removeable flip top cap), as well as a stopper. The bottle is dishwasher-safe, and the lids are hand-wash, which is ok with me. A metal carabiner clip keeps it all together, or can be used to clip it on to a pack or bike.

The tag states for each Otter Bottle sold, a contribution is made to the David Suzuki Foundation. ♥! What a great Canadian organization to support.

The next thing I realized was that there was a lot of plastic accompanying this environmentally-friendly product. The bottle was encased in a plastic sleeve. I understand the need to protect the brand new bottle during shipping/production, but I would have liked to see a different material used (recycled paper? hemp fiber? a re-useable cloth bag?). The little loopy thing that held the tag on the bottle was plastic as well. I hate these plastic loops and would rather have seen a string or ribbon that I could re-use in the garden for tying up plants, or for gift tags on presents. The tag with the Otterbottle info and the information about the David Suzuki Foundation is printed on bleached, new paper stock (as opposed to unbleached recycled) and is inexplicably coated on both sides in plastic, making it garbage rather than recycling. Huh? Not so cool.

I do love my new Otter Bottle though. It will get a lot of use on our hikes and camping trips! I like the two tops that it comes with and I love the way it looks. I love that it's Canadian, BPA-free, contributes to a worthwhile foundation, and comes in a variety of sizes. This is definitely the kind of thing I would consider as a gift as well - who really can't use one?

I wish I knew more about the contributions to the DSF - like, how much did they contribute last year from sales? How much per bottle is donated? I can't find info like that on their site. I wish the packaging fell in line with the product in terms of re-use and sustainability. That said, the packaging was pretty minimal by today's standards. I can find a way to re-use the bag, at least.

Overall I'm pretty thrilled with it. Thank you Otter Bottle and Optimistic Beauty!