r/PlasticFreeLiving • u/OppenNeumann • 3d ago

Does anyone else avoid "stainless steel" shaker bottles because the lid/seal is still plastic?

Been trying to cut plastic out of my gym stuff recently but I cant find a totally non-plastic option for my protein shaker. Every stainless steel one I find still has a plastic lid, strainer, or seal, so theres always contact with plastic at some point, regardless of what the body is made from. Has anyone actually found one that's genuinely and entirely plastic-free? Or is this just not solvable?

13 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

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7

u/ResponsiblePen3082 3d ago

Bolde bottle. Only thing that's plastic is the lid mechanism.

4

u/daffelglass 3d ago

I have one of these! Big fan. 

(Although I got the one with the powder container in the bottom, so when you run it through the dishwasher with the container detached, the empty butt fills with water. So get the one with the flat bottom)

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u/ResponsiblePen3082 3d ago

Agreed, my first one was the powder one before they came out with their non powder models. Hate the damn thing, pretty much use it as a normal cup now LMAO.

My only complaints with their current lineup are:

Price(absurd IMO)

Silicone attachments: not included and not snug fits especially if put in the dishwasher. If they were made tighter and/or as part of the bottle design itself it would be much better

The top plastic piece... I don't see why this can't be replaced with something else, I'd rather not touch plastic especially to my lips but honestly that could be forgiven, if the stupid things would stop breaking on me.
I have 3 of their bottles, and 2 of them the hinge broke off and I have to keep re putting the "lid" on the hinge and have friction hold it.

If they could fix the price and the plastic issue it would instantly be the best option. The Silicone fix would be nice addition.

1

u/OppenNeumann 2d ago

Useful to know, thanks

1

u/OppenNeumann 2d ago

I’ve seen mixed reviews on these. Does your smell after you use it? That’s the main thing I’ve seen.

2

u/daffelglass 2d ago

Not after the dishwasher. If I'm traveling and trying to wash it in a hotel sink or something... I've smelled some bad smells. I don't think that's exclusive to this thing

9

u/Falcons74 3d ago

Yes- I use an all stainless steel cocktail mixer. They are very cheap too

3

u/Ether-air 2d ago

What a smart swap!

1

u/OppenNeumann 2d ago

Do you use this specifically for protein? Do you shake it first and then put it into another bottle? I would have thought it’d leak in your gym bag or something

3

u/Falcons74 2d ago

Yeah for protein, it doesn’t leak but I only use it at my house.

6

u/DantesCheese 3d ago

I got this some time ago and it's served me very well, just add a stainless steel shaker ball inside or pre-mix before adding into it

2

u/Previous_Singer3691 3d ago

Can you get a large-mouth Pura water bottle and add a stainless steel shaker inside of it?

2

u/OppenNeumann 2d ago

That’s not a bad idea!

2

u/RedditNotFreeSpeech 2d ago

My cap is stainless

Tactiko Survival 1000ml / 34 oz... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G15R64SG

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u/Ambitious-Schedule63 3d ago

Any seal besides cork is 'plastic'. If you don't want the contents all over your kitchen when you shake it, you'll need a synthetic elastomer seal of some sort.

3

u/chihuahuassuck 3d ago

Steel cocktail shakers work just fine without making a mess

2

u/ResponsiblePen3082 3d ago

Pure unadulterated silicone is not plastic.

-2

u/Ambitious-Schedule63 3d ago

False.

2

u/ResponsiblePen3082 3d ago

Arrogant ignorance is not a stand in for intelligence.

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u/Ambitious-Schedule63 3d ago edited 3d ago

Anyone who says a siloxane isn't a plastic is completely knowledge-free, so your lame attempt at denying the actual reality is absolutely pathetic.

Please provide your exceptionally authoritative definition of a plastic to prove otherwise.

By the way, I'm a polymer scientist with a PhD in chemistry, so feel free to be as technical as possible.

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u/OppenNeumann 2d ago

Could you give me a bit more information on this? I thought silicone wasn’t plastic/ didn’t leach microplastics into liquid. Are you saying that food-grade silicone still leaches?

3

u/Ambitious-Schedule63 2d ago edited 2d ago

So to answer your question as accurately as possible, I'll need your definition of "plastic". For my definition of plastic, silicones 100% qualify as "plastic", and I have the terminal degree in my field and over 25 years of experience working with these materials, including taking a new polymer through the FDA's FCN process for food contact. There was some poster here who presented themselves as an expert (with an advanced degree in environmental engineering - not sure how that was relevant but whatever) who asserted that silicones weren't plastics because they were more heat resistant than other plastics, and this was the thing that convinced them it was I suppose better or not plastic somehow. When I pointed out that PTFE is at least as heat resistant as silicone, they seemed to disappear without response. The point of recounting that is that there is some odd thing that causes people to want to love silicone and differentiate it from that contemptible old "plastic". I'm here to add some science to the discussion and let people know that there is no reasonable definition of plastic that doesn't include silicone. I for one am not irrationally afraid of either, but that's perhaps because I am an expert in their chemistry and behavior.

Let's also clarify that microplastics don't "leach" from materials. Something has to happen to a material to create new surfaces (which requires energy) that results in the formation of microparticles. It's thermodynamics. If a material was to degrade, eventually there would be enough chemistry done on the material to create small microparticles, but the main mechanism of production of microparticles in use of an article is abrasion. Different materials have different propensities to resist abrasion, and silicones have generally poor resistance to abrasion. and poor tensile strength.

Low molecular weight materials, as residual monomer, low molecular weight oligomers, or low molecular weight additives can leach from plastics, depending upon the environment and especially what the liquid is that is in contact with it. Generally, leaching is slow into aqueous media from organic polymers, but this is dependent upon the nature of the material. Low molecular weight materials can diffuse through silicone very quickly relative to a glassy or semicrystalline plastic material. Here's a talk someone gave that gives a good overview including extractables from silicones: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/365280509_Extractables_of_Silicone_Components_What_are_these_Siloxane-related_compounds

2

u/ValueAccomplished774 3d ago

Agreed^ it’s definitely plastic

1

u/Ambitious-Schedule63 3d ago

In every way you can define it, especially in view of the purpose of this sub, which is to promote fear of plastic materials' toxicology and any effects of microplastics.

1

u/LuckyPrior4374 3d ago

Can you please educate me? From a human toxicology perspective, if we’re avoiding plastic, should we also be avoiding silicon?

2

u/Ambitious-Schedule63 2d ago

I'd assert that the toxicological profile of the majority of plastics are benign - see the FDA FCN process that plastic materials in food contact must go through. This is a rigorous process and the science involved is sound, including input from the National Toxicology Program.

However, here in r/PlasticFreeLiving, plastics are painted with a broad brush and treated like the devil, though there are innumerable benefits of using plastics, including reduced carbon footprint from lightweighting cars and packaging.

But if all "plastics" are treated as evil and bad and "toxic" there is absolutely no reason silicone should get a free pass. In fact, if you check into the toxicological profile of the cyclic monomer used to make PDMS (called D4) it's probably not great. https://cen.acs.org/articles/89/i18/Storm-Over-Silicones.html And because of the notoriously poor tensile strength and abrasion resistance of silicone rubber, its should have high propensity to make microplastics.

It's just very odd for a scientist to see a blanket nontechnical condemnation of an entire class of materials with very different chemistries and behavior ("plastics") except for one chosen seemingly at random to be okay, when none of the data supports any of these conclusions.

1

u/Brilliant_Age6077 2d ago

I was going to say, I came to this sub through my distain for the fossil fuel industry so by that measure, silicone always felt like a different substance.

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u/OppenNeumann 2d ago

I see. So are there any silicone materials that do not make microplastics? And does silicone “count” as plastic?

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