Bottles Best for Your Baby and the Environment, Too

Babies don’t come with manuals, which is something usually not understood until motherhood. Working the infants section in Target gave me a great preview, though; seven aisles dedicated to baby foods and products made me appreciate the dizzying amount of decisions to make — and no feedback from the person for which the stuff is actually meant.

The most cluttered aisle, a fun one to organize at the end of the night while the neighboring departments watched in amusement, was the bottle aisle. With so many different types, how does a parent decide which bottle will be the safest for their infant? Environmental sustainability is secondary but just as real of a concern for many. So, what are the options? Looking at the types of bottles and the recycling and reuse available for each can help parents to make decisions.

Bottle types: Why brands don’t matter as much as the material used

Take a deep sigh of relief, parents; I am not about to endorse a single brand. Instead, I am going to talk about the options: glass, polycarbonate plastic, opaque plastic (non-polycarbonate) and disposable plastic liners.

Glass

Pros: Reusable in and of themselves. In other words, the choice is sustainable from the standpoint that the bottle is recycled through reuse until it is actually ready to be sent to a recycling center.

Cons: Glass bottles aren’t nearly as popular as they used to be, and perhaps for a good, simple reason — sometimes they just aren’t practical. They break and aren’t as easily reused, not to mention that the constant cleaning of them can be a pain (and a resource waster).

Polycarbonate plastic

Pros: It is the easiest to find and is as portable as it is microwaveable.

Cons: Increasing reports of a huge health hazard for kids for exposure to Bisphenol A, commonly used to make clear polycarbonate plastic baby bottles and other consumer product containers. Through use, the plastic breaks down and leaches Bisphenol A. Think it isn’t common? Think again. According to The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Bisphenol A was found in the urine of over 95% of people they tested. The potential neurological effects are alarming, according to Environment California, a statewide, citizen-based environmental advocacy organization. Based on a consumer survey of the most popular baby bottle brands on the market, Environment California selected five bottle types to determine the amount of leaching from each bottle. All five brands — Avent, Dr. Brown’s, Evenflo, Gerber and Playtex — tested leached Bisphenol A at levels found to cause harm in numerous laboratory studies.

Opaque plastic

Pros: None of the high-risk health cons above.

Cons: It is more difficult to monitor how much the baby has consumed during feedings because it isn’t clear. It also isn’t as lightweight.

Disposable plastic liners

Pros: In bottles that do not have to be sterilized between uses, there isn’t nearly as much clean-up work. This type of bottle may also help prevent the baby from swallowing as much air because of the collapseable properties of the bag.

Cons: Obviously, the liner is hard to recycle and usually thrown away — the opposite of sustainable. Also, the liners do not get rid of all of the work since the nipples that work with this type of bottles must still be washed and sterilized.

Recycling bottles: Where and how to

Baby all grown up now? The plastic bottle trail is probably a mile long. Luckily, here are a few things that can be done to make the process of recycling easier.

Look for recycling code PIC (Plastic Identification Code) of 4 or 7

Many local recycling centers accept plastics with a PIC of these common numbers.

Donate them

From The Salvation Army to a family in need that is known personally, as long as babies need bottles, there are plenty of places that what is otherwise trash now will be a new family’s freebies.

Contact the manufacturer of the bottle

The name is on the bottle for a reason; these bottles are their creation, and sometimes they recycle them. An email or call should work. (eHow.com talks about this extensively about this process).

No matter what you do, remember this: Healthy choices tend to go hand in hand with environmentally sustainable ones, according to the layout of bottles at least.