Catch a plastic wave

Polar Bottle capitalizes on BPA-free product

By Joyzelle Davis, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Friday, May 16, 2008

George Kochaniec Jr. / The Rocky

Employee Asim Gazibara puts a "No BPA" label on a plastic bottle at Polar Bottle. The company has been making BPA-free bottles since its inception 14 years ago. Concern was raised last month about the safety of products made with BPA.

Judy Amabile helped found Polar Bottle 14 years ago.

Polar Bottle has never used the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) to make its reusable water bottles, and the 14-year-old Boulder company never made a big deal out of it.

Then federal toxicology investigators last month concluded that there is "some concern" about the polycarbonate plastic based on experiments that linked BPA to problems including early-stage prostate and breast cancer.

Suddenly, BPA-free alternatives were a hot item.

But it wasn't obvious to consumers that Polar's 20-ounce and 24-ounce insulated bottles don't contain the offending chemical, prompting some to toss perfectly good reusable bottles, and others to call from the aisles of REI wondering if the bottles were safe.

"We're a tiny company; we don't do any consumer advertising," said Judy Amabile, co-founder of Polar Bottle. "We notified all of our vendors that our bottles don't have BPAs, but we can't get to every employee at every store."

So Polar Bottle scrambled to order up thousands of "BPA Free" stickers and affix them by hand to bottles as they're heading out the door on their way to retailers, including REI, Dick's Sporting Goods, Sports Authority and the Container Store.

It's difficult to tell which bottles contain BPA and which don't. Plastic with the recycling label No. 7 stamped on it is typically, but not always, polycarbonate. No. 7 also includes "other" plastics, such as polyethylene and polypropylene, which don't contain BPA. Polar Bottles are stamped No. 4, but they're encased in a foil lining that covers the number.

The BPA befuddlement among consumers was so great that REI decided several weeks ago to pull any BPA-containing bottles off their shelves nationwide, spokeswoman Bethany Nielson said.

"With all the e-mails we were receiving and the inquiries in the stores, we realized that there was just too much confusion," she said.

Nalgene and CamelBak both said they have stopped making hydration containers that contain BPA, emphasizing that they were responding to consumer demand rather than concerned about the safety of the chemical. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said that the agency has no reason to recommend that consumers stop using products made with the chemical and that most studies indicate that it's harmless.

The BPA scare comes as Polar Bottles sales were already on the upswing following a redesign in 2006 that added a carrying strap and array of colors. Sales have more than doubled since 2005 to hit around 700,000, Amabile said. The two-layer bottles are blow-molded primarily in Denver and then assembled in Boulder.

Today Polar Bottle employs 22 workers. That's a big change from when the company started in Amabile and Robert Heiberger's basement in 1994.

Heiberger, an avid cyclist and mechanical engineer, created the bottle as a way to keep liquids cool during his long rides. Amabile, a business consultant, went door to door to Denver area and Aspen cycling shops pitching the product.

Sales of the bottle were pretty flat until 2005, when Dick's Sporting Goods put in Polar Bear's first large order.

Amabile and Heiberger separated seven years ago, but they continue to run the business they co-founded together. The close-knit company is, in fact, something of a family affair, employing Amabile's brother-in-law and nieces and nephews. The company's production manager, a Bosnian who has been with Polar Bottle since the start, eventually brought in both his parents and four other brothers as employees.

Polar Bottle is small compared with industry heavyweights Nalgene, which is owned by laboratory supply and instrument manufacturer Thermo Fisher Scientific, and CamelBak.

Amabile said Polar Bottle has contemplated branching out beyond its two-bottle lineup, particularly now that consumers are eager to avoid BPA. But the company is proceeding cautiously.

"I do think there's some opportunity for us, but we're a small company and we don't have a huge capital base to invest in new products," she said.

davisj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2514.

Plastic bottle Q & A

* Why is polycarbonate used in hydration bottles?

Strong polycarbonate is a good fit for the tough sports-bottle industry. The popular Nalgene bottles are predominantly polycarbonate, but the company announced in April it would phase out all BPA-containing products.

* Who should be cautious?

Experts are less concerned with BPA-containing water bottles than baby bottles, unless they are being used by children and pregnant women. Studies have linked the chemical with chromosomal damage that could lead to birth defects, miscarriages or infertility.

* What does the No. 7 stamp mean?

Most plastic containers have a recycling symbol with a number within a triangle. These numbers, ranging from 1 to 7, known as resin identification coding, were created to help recycling programs. The No. 7 is a miscellaneous category for plastics made with resin other than those in 1 to 6, or a blend of resins. The No. 7 category includes polycarbonate as well as compostable plastics made of organic material and other types of plastic that don't contain BPA.

• May 17, 2008

  10:14 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  SASQUATCH writes:

  We are all going to die from BPA cardiocerbovenerialdyslexicangina. There is nothing that we can do about it, call The Neptune Society now.

  In the meantime, we also need to ban monster homes, SUVs and fat-assed people who eat too much.

  We are all doomed.

  DOCTOR DOOM