Last year, TreadmillReviews.net published a study showing that water bottles harbor more bacteria than many of us would like to believe. Through testing different types of water bottle lids, including slide-top, squeeze-top, screw-top and straw-top, the researchers found that water bottle lids contained negative bacteria that causes infections like pneumonia, bloodstream infections, meningitis and more.
The report’s findings were shocking, as reusable water bottles have been a staple of everyday life, with the decline of single-use bottles boosting their importance all the time. So, for those who want to be sustainable but healthy, where can you look?
Enter the Quartz bottle. It’s a self-cleaning water bottle that purifies water using a UV-C L.E.D. light. It debuted on Kickstarter, and retails for $99.
The bottle’s 280 nanometer UV-C LED light neutralizes “up to 99.99 percent of bio-contaminants from your water and the surface of your bottle,” the Quartz website says. The L.E.D. light activates every four hours, which Quartz says keeps it “10,000 times cleaner than the average bottle.” It’s also double-insulated to keep water cold for 24 hours or hot for 12.
The Kickstarter campaign, which set out to raise $30,000, has already raised more than $250,000 with 27 days left.
While the $99 price tag seems a bit steep for a water bottle, it’s worth crunching the numbers and thinking about how much one might spend on single-use bottles in a year. Furthermore, for health-minded clients (think hospitals, gyms or yoga studios) the promise of clean water and a clean bottle without the hassle of daily cleaning is a big selling point.
