‘Bottle-Flipping’ Fad: A Teachable Moment

Flip a bottle, make it land upright, and win! A strange tween fad belies the wasteful use of throw-away plastic bottles. The good news? Parents can educate their ‘flipping’ kids about reusable bottles and recycling.

I know. I’m well on my way to full-blown “Stay off my lawn!” curmudgeon-hood. But honestly, kids these days! With their Pokemon Go, and their planking, and my god, the Snapchatting!

It’s tough enough being a parent without your kids finding new and increasingly baffling ways to drive you nuts.

Bottle Flipping: As Boring As It Sounds

If you’re unfamiliar (congratulations), it’s exactly what it sounds like. Middleschoolers and teenagers around the country are obsessed with flipping half-full, disposable plastic water bottles. The goal: make it land upright.

I know, I don’t get it either. But the craze was set off by video of a North Carolina high school senior performing the “trick” at a talent show. Watch below if you want to get rid of 30 seconds of your life.

Since that moment, students have been spending tens of their parents’ hard-earned dollars on bottled water every week. Don’t kid yourself, though; they’re not concerned with adequate hydration, they’re using that money to get flipped.

Earth: The Real Victim

You’re probably saying: “I’d rather my kid buy a bottle of water than a bottle of liquor.” That’s fair, but this is really about the bottle, not what’s in it (unless it is actually liquor, then you’ve got two problems).

Plastic water bottles not only guzzle 50 million barrels of oil in their production alone, they’re also the most notorious culprit in oceanic litter. It’s estimated there are over 46,000 pieces of plastic trash in every square mile of our oceans.

Put simply, bottle flipping is a powerful gateway drug to a lifetime of waste and a disregard for the health of natural habitats.

Reusable Bottles: A Path To Recovery

Talking with your kids about the processes of oil refining and global consumerism is integral to their happiness and well-being. It’s right up there with the birds and the bees.

But you can actually use their bottle flipping habit to help the environment. Get them a reusable travel bottle. A reusable bottle can effectively eliminate your child’s devastating impact on the earth, and they look cool, too!

Best of all, getting your kid their own reusable bottle will save you money (let’s face it, they’re not spending their own). For the same cost as one 99-cent bottle of water, you could fill a half-liter reusable 1,740 times. Can you say college fund?

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Do it for yourself. Do it for the planet. For the love of glory, do it for the kids! Get a reusable water bottle before your child flips out.