Field Mag: The Best Reusable Alternatives to Smartwater Bottles
Field Mag: The Best Reusable Alternatives to Smartwater Bottles
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In the thru-hiking community, Smartwater bottles are prized for their lightweight durability, but they're still single-use. here are some reusable swaps.
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The Best Reusable Alternatives to Smartwater Bottles
The Smartwater bottle is a hallmark of thru-hiking culture—so much so that we’ve written an entire ode to it. In a sport full of expensive gear that often trades weight savings for durability, the Smartwater bottle represents the dirtbag spirit at the heart of hardcore hiking culture: it's incredibly cheap but not imminently disposable, lightweight but surprisingly long-lasting. Smartwater bottles have a useful shape that fits well in skinny pack pockets and, more importantly, they're compatible with hikers' favorite water filter, the Sawyer Squeeze.
A single-use plastic bottle might seem misplaced among outdoor rec philosophies like Leave No Trace. But a closer look will reveal disposability is a core tenet of ultralight hiking—even pricey Dyneema packs and shelters are often only rated for one thru-hike, and ziploc and trash compactor bags are key UL items. This disposability has always been most apparent with plastic bottles, however. Hikers will push Smartwater bottles to their absolute limit, but they were never made to be reused to this degree, especially not for months on end. They crack, deform, leech chemicals, and ultimately contribute to the excessive plastic waste that many of us strive to mitigate in our everyday lives.
The Best Reusable Alternatives to Smartwater Bottles
The Smartwater bottle is a hallmark of thru-hiking culture—so much so that we’ve written an entire ode to it. In a sport full of expensive gear that often trades weight savings for durability, the Smartwater bottle represents the dirtbag spirit at the heart of hardcore hiking culture: it's incredibly cheap but not imminently disposable, lightweight but surprisingly long-lasting. Smartwater bottles have a useful shape that fits well in skinny pack pockets and, more importantly, they're compatible with hikers' favorite water filter, the Sawyer Squeeze.
A single-use plastic bottle might seem misplaced among outdoor rec philosophies like Leave No Trace. But a closer look will reveal disposability is a core tenet of ultralight hiking—even pricey Dyneema packs and shelters are often only rated for one thru-hike, and ziploc and trash compactor bags are key UL items. This disposability has always been most apparent with plastic bottles, however. Hikers will push Smartwater bottles to their absolute limit, but they were never made to be reused to this degree, especially not for months on end. They crack, deform, leech chemicals, and ultimately contribute to the excessive plastic waste that many of us strive to mitigate in our everyday lives.
The Best Reusable Alternatives to Smartwater Bottles
The Smartwater bottle is a hallmark of thru-hiking culture—so much so that we’ve written an entire ode to it. In a sport full of expensive gear that often trades weight savings for durability, the Smartwater bottle represents the dirtbag spirit at the heart of hardcore hiking culture: it's incredibly cheap but not imminently disposable, lightweight but surprisingly long-lasting. Smartwater bottles have a useful shape that fits well in skinny pack pockets and, more importantly, they're compatible with hikers' favorite water filter, the Sawyer Squeeze.
A single-use plastic bottle might seem misplaced among outdoor rec philosophies like Leave No Trace. But a closer look will reveal disposability is a core tenet of ultralight hiking—even pricey Dyneema packs and shelters are often only rated for one thru-hike, and ziploc and trash compactor bags are key UL items. This disposability has always been most apparent with plastic bottles, however. Hikers will push Smartwater bottles to their absolute limit, but they were never made to be reused to this degree, especially not for months on end. They crack, deform, leech chemicals, and ultimately contribute to the excessive plastic waste that many of us strive to mitigate in our everyday lives.
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43.2% of hikers used the Sawyer Squeeze, the most common hollow membrane squeeze filter (and the most common water treatment overall).
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Randy Patton’s late father, Biff Patton, launched the water filter program in 2010.
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The most significant being its positive impact on our health after using it, its capacity to reduce our expenses on water treatment and access to safe water, and the time it saves by eliminating the need for boiling or treating water.
