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S’well: A Better Reusable Water Bottle?

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In the fight to reduce the estimated 50 billion plastic bottles consumed in the US every year, not all reusable bottles are created equal. Newcomer S’well promises a dramatic upgrade on a number of specs, from design to advanced insulation. The sleek stainless steel bottle preserves beverage temperature significantly longer than standard reusable bottles and offers a pleasantly ergonomic.


The only design downside: S’well lacks any hook or loop on the bottle’s cap, which those of us who live and die by our reusable bottles have come to appreciate as a necessary component of portability.

In a partnership with WaterAid, a global nonprofit that for the past 30 years has been working to provide clean drinking water to the world’s poorest communities, S’well donates 10% of proceeds from every sale – double the standard 5% charitable contribution similar arrangements tend to offer, though not a leap of the imagination given the $40 price tag – to programs improving access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation in the developing world.

Among S’well’s winning points is their Twitter stream – a well-curated feed of environmental news and resources, a far cry from the usual navel-gazing PR deluge most startups push into Twitter.

Maria Popova is the editor of Brain Pickings, a curated inventory of miscellaneous interestingness. She writes for Wired UK, GOOD Magazine, Design Observer and Huffington Post, and spends a shameful amount of time on Twitter.

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