Industry News: SIGG’s BPA Use Revives Water Bottle Safety Discussion


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Industry News: SIGG’s BPA Use Revives Water Bottle Safety Discussion

Issue: 2009sep

Swiss aluminum-bottle manufacturer SIGG recently revealed that some of its high-end reusable drinkware, manufactured before 2008, included small amounts of bisphenol-A, a chemical which has come under scrutiny, and been restricted in many cases, in the past few years.

The revelation, reported last month in Advertising Age, is followed by the notion that while SIGG works to repair its image as an eco-friendly company, other manufacturers in the same business may gain more customers as a result.

Blanchester, Ohio-based supplier The Allen Company (UPIC: ALLEN) sells one market competitor, the CamelBak line of portable drinkware. Allen’s CamelBak bottles are manufactured from a material called Triton, which executive vice president Stan Dohan, MAS, says is “the first completely new polymer to be developed in the past 11 years.” Allen worked with the Eastman company on the material’s development.

Dohan says while SIGG’s limited presence in promotional products business doesn’t make it a strong competitor for Allen’s CamelBak lines, the revelation should be a wake-up call to industry professionals who don’t examine eco-friendly claims closely.

“Certainly a lot of distributors purchase [reusable bottles] because of brand and function,” says Dohan. “But some distributors just want a sale, and so they may turn a blind eye.”

Efforts have been made to help educate industry professionals on using safe, environmentally friendly materials in promotional products, though Dohan acknowledges there’s still confusion in the industry. “If people don’t get it now, they probably won’t get it until it affects their pocketbook,” says Dohan.

“The bottles people are selling for a buck, I can guarantee they probably aren’t BPA-free,” he says. “[SIGG’s announcement] shows how important it is to pay attention, and to work a little harder to get an order that’s going to make a lot more money, rather than just trying to make a sale.”

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