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This water bottle raised over $500,000 on Kickstarter because of its innovative collapsible design

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It’s no secret that disposable plastic water bottles are harmful to the environment. Everyone knows it’s better to recycle, but not enough of us fully commit to it — the US recycling rate is a dismal 23%. Americans used 50 billion plastic water bottles last year, and it’s estimated that 38 billion of those were wasted.

Reusable water bottles have become more popular recently, which is helping to curb the trend slightly, but many of them can be a hassle. They're bulky to carry when empty, and some even add an off-putting metallic taste to your water.

The que Bottlecreated by Jean and Kevin Wu, was made to address these issues and ideally help lead to less waste. Its spiral design allows it to collapse down to a smaller size when empty, making it much less burdensome than more traditional water bottles. Additionally, because the que Bottle is made of silicon, there’s no metallic taste when you’re hydrating.

que Bottle
que Bottle

"We go to a lot of music festivals. At these events, we noticed that there’s a real problem with plastic bottles. There’s always a big waste problem afterwards, with bottles left everywhere. We came up with the idea of the que Bottle because we just thought it was so bad for the environment that people were buying all these bottles of water and then just throwing them away," Jean Wu told Digital Trends in an interview last year.

After a year of research and development, the pair took the product to Kickstarter seeking $20,000 to get their business off the ground. The campaign raised over half a million dollars.

As a frequent festival-goer myself, I can easily see the que Bottle becoming an essential addition the backpacks of Coachella and Bonnaroo attendees. When you’re spending the entire day in the sun, you want something compact enough to carry all day, but big enough to carry a decent amount of water.

You can see the bottle in action in the INSIDER video above. If you’ve been dissatisfied with reusable bottles in the past, or have a music festival on your calendar this summer, a que Bottle might be the perfect thing to have on you.

que Factory Collapsible Water Bottle, $24.95

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Read the original article on Insider Picks. Copyright 2017. Follow Insider Picks on Twitter.
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