SHOPPER
Quenching Your Conscience

Thursday, August 23, 2007

The people have spoken. Water may still carry that good-for-you appeal, but what you carry water in may not. Those clear, plastic status symbols (which scream my body is a temple, therefore I pay more for water than I do for gasoline) have been vilified as non-carbon-neutral time bombs with misleading labels. Bottled water backlash is in full force.

"It's been a long time coming," says Josh Dorfman, author of "The Lazy Environmentalist" and spokesman for the "Filter for Good" campaign by Nalgene, maker of those colorful, indestructible (and reusable) bottles ubiquitous on college campuses. "It's actually cool to care about our impact on the planet, and giving up a disposable water bottle's an easy solution."

Kicking the disposable habit is easier with a new crop of stylish and permanent options for your daily hydration. For aqua addicts who are never without a bottle in their bag or car, Nalgene offers a sturdy, leakproof flask (complete with an insulating sleeve).

Then there are the old-school glass carafes. With a drinking glass that doubles as a lid, weighted base and the capacity to hold a quarter of your daily H2O recommendation, the decadent decanters make even a bottle of Fiji look cheap.

And they're all dishwasher-safe. Not that you'd waste the water or the energy.

-- Cory Ohlendorf