Did you know that every product imported needs to pass a chemical test to deem them safe? The US gold standard is Prop 65, but US standards are far below European regulations. Some of the chemicals tested for include Lead, Phthalates and Cadmium and all of these can lead to cancer. At Bivo, we don't think Prop 65 is good enough. Prop 65 was created for the state of California only. Chemical limits for the rest of the US are lower. If you see a product isn’t allowed in California due to Prop 65, you know that something on that product failed a chemical test for Prop 65 but is deemed safe in other states. To be frank, we find this quite appalling and think even Prop 65 is not strict enough. We passed all European standards instead and elected to test for BPS, a voluntary chemical to test for in our polypropylene lid. 

 

For our testing process, we use SGS, a multinational corporation that specializes in chemical testing. With their help, we determined a testing regimen that would cover some of the most rigorous regulations for specific European countries in addition to all US regulations. We test both the inside and the outside of the bottle, each color, and all components so we can be confident in the bottles we sell. 

 

At Bivo, we are constantly trying to reduce the impact we have on the environment without compromising functionality. Recently, we were evaluating some postconsumer polypropylene material that we hoped to use for our lids. After conducting our chemical testing, it was determined that the material passes US standards but fails European and specific European country standards. While this result deems the material  safe to sell in the US, we prefer to hold ourselves to a higher standard and will refrain. We will continue our search until we are confident in the materials safety. 

 

Quench Responsibly - Team Bivo