The Stanley Cup frenzy is only part of it
Also, everybody is drinking plastic!
Some very strange things are happening around water.
Thing 1: If you’re drinking bottled water (and tbh, even if you’re not), you’re drinking plastic — a LOT of it. New research finds the average liter of bottled water contains 240,000 particles of plastic. Most of these particles are “nanoplastics,” meaning they’re smaller than one micrometer, or less than one-seventieth the width of a human hair, per the Washington Post.
Thing 2: Reusable water bottles, ostensibly the *sustainable* alternative to single-use plastic bottles, have gone the way of the Beanie Baby. Namely, one Stanley Cup, is the object of generations Z-and-under desires: You’ve seen the trend pieces and coverage of the stampedes and hoarding. Customers are camping outside stores for limited edition colorways, displaying the rainbow on their pantry shelves, documenting their children unwrapping their wished-for Christmas gift while weeping with joy.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
The popularity of this particular cup (we are indeed talking about a cup!) has soared to unimaginable heights: Stanley went from a reported $73 million in revenue in 2019 to $750 million in 2023 (damn, right?!).
On one hand, it’s unfair to criticize this trend any differently than those that’ve come before it. Consumer pandemonium has always been part of American culture, fueled by strategies like limited editions and influencer marketing. In my day it was Black Friday Tickle Me Elmos or the 1999 holographic Charizard I never could find in my Pokemon pack. (Also, as a #watergirlie, I have no doubt that if I were currently 14 I’d have at least four Stanleys).
On the other hand, there is something particularly weird and hideous about thirsting over every color of a bulky water cup. The Stanley cup — which has a lifetime guarantee — is designed to last. So why collect them all?
There’s something else happening here — I think the culture is kind of collapsing in on itself? Our impulse to want and satisfy those wants has sped up so drastically that we can subscribe to one sentiment (bottled water is wasteful and bad) while simultaneously buying into its contradiction (reusable water bottles are good and I must have them all). This isn’t exactly right, I’m still working it out in my head.
Trend experts predict the Stanley has hit its peak, meaning many will begin to retire the bottles in their collection in favor of a water vessel that’s less cheugy (or whatever), only for the cycle to repeat. And where will these Stanleys go to die?
The landfill. Where they will spend the rest of eternity with their cousin, the plastic water bottle.
Back to plastic water bottles for a sec.
We don’t yet understand the health implications of consuming plastic. We do know that nanoplastics are minuscule enough to make their way into our livers, our brains, and our blood. I don’t love that, you?
There are some beginning findings around the effects of eating plastic. From Earth.org:
Although this plastic isn’t immediately poisonous, it has been shown to have detrimental affects on living organisms. Plastic molecules are endocrine disruptors—they mimic certain hormones present in humans and animals, interfering with reproductive systems. One study showed that when marine oysters lived in waters polluted with microscopic plastic for two months during their critical reproductive cycle, they produced fewer eggs and had slow swimming sperm. The larvae of these plastic-affected oysters also grew slower than normal. When exposed to environmentally relevant levels of plastic in its food, fish named Japanese medaka experienced liver stress and signs of endocrine disruption.
Umm…
Stay hydrated?
Gahhh I don't know what stresses me out more these days: the thought of all those perfectly good water bottles eventually getting tossed (that TikTok blew my mind) or the way nanoplastics are (literally :( ) living in my brain rent-free!!!
Thank you for pointing out how these are meant to last, aka you don't need one in every color!!