Aiden Kraft—Staff Writer 

With each new year the beast of consumerism finds a new product for the masses to purchase at excessive volume. In recent years, with the growth in social media’s influence on the consumption of certain products, a trend has arisen: reusable water bottles.  

Companies like Hydro Flask, Owala, Yeti, and the recent Stanley tumbler are all growing companies and products which have all made themselves viral on social media. These companies have convinced the masses that using their water bottle is a tangible way to gain clout with their peers, both in person and online. These companies preach a delusion which tells the consumer that they are incapable of overconsumption., that buying more will produce a sense of satisfaction for the customer. This creates a strange, unhealthy relationship between consumer, retailer, and the environment. 

Retailing for anywhere from $35 to 45 dollars, the Stanley Tumbler alone was projected to sell $750 million in sales in 2023 according to CNBC. These numbers have also translated to social media in mind blowing numbers, with the #StanleyCup amassing a total of 6.8 billion views on TikTok according to CBS News. Additionally, other companies are grasping their share of this growing market. Companies like Yeti and Hydro Flask are making millions of dollars coming out of 2023.  

Just as much as anyone, I too enjoy a crisp drag from the long straw of a Hydro Flask and believe that a reusable water bottle is a practical way for many to help reduce plastic waste as a means of positively impacting the environment. Surely the alternative to a reusable water bottle, a throw-away plastic one, is much more harmful for the environment. However, deducing the environmentalism behind using a reusable product to an internet trend, influences the consumer to overconsume and overspend on unnecessary products.  

What is to happen when this trend ceases? It is inevitable that many of the people who purchased the product initially, will be influenced in the same way again with a competing product (of which there are many in this market). This will lead many to put their three Stanley cups into the water bottle drawer, never to be used again, or thrown into the landfill. This is a classic case of the pathway to disaster being paved by good intentions.  

Fortunately, the solution is simple: be an intelligent consumer. For consumers that already own a perfectly functioning reusable product, there is no need for something which is practically a duplicate. Practicing self-control in this aspect, especially when pertaining to products which are non-essential to everyday life, has environmental and financial impacts. 

With consumer debt in the US on a steady rise, credit card debt alone increased by $113 Billion in quarter three of 2023 according to the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Things need to change.  

How can companies continue to market overconsumption, when consumer debt is increasing? 

If the generation of our peers can realize the problem of overconsumption and utilize simple tactics like self-control, we will set up financial success for ourselves and successive generations both environmentally and economically. We need to use this one instance and let it teach us about ourselves, and other areas of consumerism which need to change, starting a change in the way consumers interact with any product, not just metal water bottles.