Drink tap water and help the environment with Tappening BPA-free plastic water bottles.

After a few years of watching my teen arrive home with plastic bottles of commercially packaged water and flavored beverages, I began advocating for refillable water bottles for the whole family. Being a native New Yorker, I'm a big fan of tap water and always keep a bottle on my desk at work. Similarly, you won't find me in a car, a movie theatre, or on a hiking or ski trail without one. But my enthusiasm for refillable water bottles ceased in April 2008 with the BPA plastics scare -- the discovery that bisphenol A, found in baby bottles, Nalgene bottles, the liners of food cans, DVDs, eyeglasses and hundreds of other products might be linked to cancer. Early reports indicated that polycarbonate bottles could leach harmful BPA chemicals when heated.

So when I was offered the chance to review Tappening's 100% BPA-free plastic water bottle with the very cool slogan "Think Global, Drink Local" on it, I jumped at it. The Tappening water bottle is made of 100% BPA-free plastic (so won't degrade harmfully in the dishwasher). It's a nice green color and, if you don't care about the slogan, comes in blue as well. However, in comparison with Nalgene, a long-standing company that released its own 100%BPA-free bottles after the 2008 scare, the Tappening feels harder to drink from because my nose collides with the smaller mouth of the bottle. This is an entirely subjective opinion, however, the smaller mouth does make the bottle harder to wash by hand, and non-BPA plastics require more frequent cleaning.

Instead, I prefer the slim, stainless steel Tappening water bottles ($18.95) because of their small mouth, easy screw-on top and lighter weight. Although they're a bit more expensive, they are very cool looking in their electric green, red and gold colors, and they're impact-proof - a great asset if your kids carry them in the outer pockets of their backpacks. Family members may also be interested in their handy Message-in-a-Bag tote bag, which is made with 100% post-consumer recycled materials; ie: discarded plastic bottles and yogurt containers.

Best of all, the company, founded by savvy Mad Men from New York's ad agency scene, dedicates its profits to educating the public about the waste created by discarded plastics.