An international design contest could determine the Swiss brand’s next big bottle.

Plastique water is lame, so outmoded that the city of Concord, Massachusetts is seeking a ban on selling it, the Grand Canyon already has and, thus far, dozens of colleges and universities across the nation are restricting the purchase and use of it as well.

That’s bad news for Coke and Pepsi, the manufacturers behind Dasani and Aquafina respectively. Good news for companies like Nalgene and CamelBak – and even better for SIGG, the century old Swiss company that has turned the reusable water bottle into a fashionable and eco-forward accessory due to its reliance on “of-the-moment” design.

Equally au courant, SIGG has moved into crowd-sourcing to determine the next graphical incantation for its brand of aluminum canisters.

The company is collaborating with Talenthouse on an international design competition, which is now open to social voting via Facebook and Twitter. Over 2,000 designs have been entered from all over the world, including Brazil, Egypt and Nepal – appropriate given that so many of our recycled bottles are shipped globally for “downcycling” or straight-up dumping.

Here’s the skinny on the plastic water bottle industry: the water used in plastic water bottles is less regulated than regular tap water; a lot of it is tap water anyway (e.g., Aquafina); the oil that goes into producing the bottles themselves is as vapid as the consumption required to fuel a Suburban; 80 percent of the bottles end up in a landfill or toxin-pumping incinerator.

So knowing what we know, swigging from a bottle of Fiji doesn’t look so Smart, even with Aniston’s endorsement and the added electrolytes.

You’ll look sexier with a SIGG anyhow, and now it’s democratic.

Voting for the SIGG design competition is on now through April 9^th, winners will be announced in time for Earth Day.

The post What’s on Your SIGG? A Design Competition Leaves It Up to You appeared first on EcoSalon.

This weekend, our EIC Sara Ost sent me an email lamenting the fact that finding a logo-free hot beverage vessel in today’s marketplace is circa impossible. After conducting some research myself, I have to agree.

Yes, carting around disposable cups from Starbucks is lame, especially with so many stylish alternatives out there. But what of being a walking, sipping advertisement for said company, your work’s softball team, the last charity event your mom participated in, and so on and so forth? I like Sigg, but until they start paying me to carry their bottles around, I don’t see why I’m paying them up to $25 for services rendered.

Well, here are three semi-decent reasons in Smoked Pearl, Nature’s Return and Sun Salutation:

And here are four (though technically, three) just as acceptable ones that let you drink and slurp cold-weather beverages in logo-free bliss.

This BPA-free, stainless steel vacuum tumbler from Adesso will keep your hot beverages well-insulated and pretty.

Did you know Thermos was an actual brand, like Kleenex? I had no idea. But they don’t bang on about it, which is why this double walled vacuum insulated mug plus serving cup will work for us.

Stanley makes a basic black travel mug made from eCycle, a mix of recycled plastics that’s equally as recyclable.

This is kind of a tricky one. The Bamboo Bottle Company is, indeed, a company. As such, they’ve got their logo all over this BPA-free hot water vessel made from bamboo and glass. Admittedly, totally counter to our argument. But forgivable given their innovative use of bamboo and their small, up-and-coming, eco-company status.

Can we get away with it? Almost.

Images: Chialion; Pop Deluxe; Thermos; Working Person; Sigg; Bamboo Bottle Company

The post 7 (Almost) Logo-Free Hot Beverage Vessels appeared first on EcoSalon.

This is a new SIGG water bottle with a Keith Haring lady liberty design, part of a limited edition series celebrating America, land of the free, home of  thirsty. Perhaps you could score one of these cool designs for free by getting rid of an old SIGG bottle that contains poison, and you can enjoy the benefits without having to worry about exposing your body to a synthetic drug known to disrupt normal endocrine function.

I simply won’t stand for that in a water bottle. How about you?

If you bought a metal SIGG bottle before August of 2008, you have until Halloween to trade it in for a bottle with the new and improved EcoCare liner free of bisphenol A (BPA), a synthetic sex hormone chemical linked to cancer and neurological problems. In other words, switch that trick for a treat.

What is the trick in the SIGG exchange program? Last week, Steve Wasik, chief executive officer of SIGG Switzerland, shocked the reusable water world by admitting that the liners were made with an epoxy resin that contains BPA. As Elaine Shannon of the Huffington Post pointed out, this was an about-face from his previous posture that the bottles simply didn’t leech the harmful chemical and were totally safe.

“He decided on his authority, consumers didn’t want or need to know more,” Shannon observes, adding it is difficult to see Wasik’s stance as anything but cynical.

Wasik’s posting on the SIGG website explained that the BPA debate has heated up dramatically in the last 12 months with the conversation progressing from a focus on leeching to the mere presence of BPA in products. He stresses that this dialogue has evolved to the extent that “some states are considering legislation.”

In fact, last May, Chicago was one of the first U.S. cities to ban the sale of baby bottles and sippy cups containing the chemical and the Food and Drug Administration recently announced it would undertake a new BPA review. In 2008, the FDA resisted recommending retailers discontinue using products that contain BPA until it had completed its risk assessment process. “However, concerned consumers should know that several alternatives to polycarbonate baby bottles exist, including glass baby bottles,” the feds said.

Meantime, you have to follow your own instincts and decide if you want to exchange your SIGG or simply find another aluminum or other bottle brand.

In terms of determining if you have the old kind of bottle, SIGG has provided the best kind of crisis PR fact sheet on its site with visuals that show the difference between the bad and good liners.

The EcoCare liner has a dull, pale yellow appearance while the former liner has a shiny copper bronze appearance.

For details on the exchange program and other issues pertaining to the safety of these bottles, go to the My SIGG website.

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