With so much focus on bottled water being bad for the environment, most people only think of two different alternatives, plastic drink bottles and stainless steel drink bottles (or aluminium drink bottles like SIGG). There is, however, a third option. Glass.

While the obvious PRO’s for drinking out of a glass water bottle is the safety factor from a health perspective, there are many reasons why it’s simply painful to use a glass bottle to drink from.

1. They are much heavier than their counterparts. If you’re carrying a water bottle around all day, when it’s full of water, they’ll get really heavy.
2. Glass is breakable. Most glass bottles you buy are quite thick, but drop one, especially on concrete and they will break.

So, if you’ve decided to use a glass water bottle, what are your options?

Reuse a bottle you purchased with drink in it. Quite a few brands of water & soft drink come in glass bottles, a couple of Italian spring waters found on the shelves of Coles or Woolworths come to mind. If you are concerned about BPA in the lid lining, check with the manufacturer before using.

Purchase a budget bottle from a homewares store. There are many glass bottles available in homewares stores designed for drinking out of, storing home made salad dressing & more.

The bottle to your right is a Maxwell Williams bottle and retails for $4.95. Available in a variety of colours and available from most homewares chains throughout Australia such as Robin’s Kitchen, House and others.

If you are at all concerned about safety or BPA, it’s a good idea to find out from the manufacturer what they make the rubber seal from, as the seal will come in to contact with your water.

There are many variations of these types of bottles on the market, a few beer manufacturers like Grolsch use them too, although I’m not quite sure how easy it will be getting the beer smell out of the seal! Brewing supply companies would also be an excellent choice for a budget glass water bottle.

Purchase a quality glass water bottle. New to Australia in 2010, the Lifefactory glass beverage bottle (above) is a 650ml drink bottle with a wide mouth opening, food safe silicone seal and protective cover and a BPA Free screw lid.

The 5.2cm wide mouth opening is big enough to stick ice cubes down or even a spoon to carry around a fruit salad. The bottle has a diameter of 7cm, fitting in most car cup holders, and the whole thing can be put in the dishwasher. Buy your Lifefactory glass water bottle online from Shop Naturally or Until. CLICK HERE for a full list of Australian Stockists.