UKH

Fully committed to the circular economy, Nalgene have pioneered the use of Tritan Renew resin to construct their iconic drinks bottle. Built with a certified 50% material recycled from waste plastic, Nalgene Sustain bottles are now available in the classic colours, well known by outdoor enthusiasts for many years.

Read more

Can some part of the UKC hivemind explain why they can't use 100% recycled plastic? Is it just to make twice as many bottles, or is it more complicated than that?

My understanding is that moving to 100% recycled materials - at least currently - would result in the product being less durable. One of the things that makes Nalgenes so good is the fact that they're pretty much indestructible, so - at least in theory - you buy one and it has the potential to last a lifetime. If it were to break, you'd have to buy a new one, which would negate any of the benefits of having used the recycled materials in the first place.

This is something of a generalisation, but that's the gist - at least as I understand it. 

Sounds right to me.  I occasionally get various versions of Nalgene bottles (usually the slimmer ones with the more complicated locking drinking spouts) at company meetings and I've never managed to even dent one yet, so I have quite a selection.  My best effort was dropping a full one at Fairy Cave Quarry that bounced down the crag before ricocheting between the very pointy boulders below.  It took me a while to find it, but when I did, it had one barely visible scratch.

They were originally designed (are are still widely used) as laboratory storage bottles for all manner of chemical solutions and needed to be as inert and unbreakable as possible.      

Cheaper and greener to rescue a plastic bottle from the bin and rinse it out surely?

Sorry, how silly of me, no cash in that. 

Not enough recycled polymer in the world to go round either

My brother bought me a Nalgene from the USA in 2000. It's thicker than the ones nowadays. It's still my only water bottle. I've used it on an almost daily basis for the last 21 years and it's still going strong... bounced down crags, fallen off walls, been run over... and nearly met its demise 2 years ago when it slid down the Mer De Glace and stopped a gnats cock from the edge of a colossal crevasse. Admittedly it would probably have survived for someone to use in Cham in 100 years time. So far the only actual damage to it is a broken connector between bottle and lid.

Personally I think that's pretty good going. Something less durable, recycled or not, is probably false economy for me.

I'm intrigued as to why people downvoted you for that.

Cheap vodka comes in plastic bottles and these look way cooler than any designer bottle at the crag 😁