Having your shelves filled with Stanley tumblers is not the point of the cup

• The Stanley Tumbler is a trendy reusable bottle taking over social media.
• As a result, a collector culture has emerged, with people displaying dozens on their shelves.

America's hottest reusable water container has a sustainability problem.

Stanley tumblers — specifically the Stanley Quencher H2.0 FlowState Tumbler — are breaking the internet as thousands of people stock up on the drinking conveyance that can sometimes resell for hundreds of dollars. In offices and middle schools alike, the Stanley is a status symbol.

New colors and collaboration drops have made the brand a collector's item. And people are definitely collecting.

On TikTok, influencers are showing off their shelves full of Stanley Tumblers, each in different colors. Some have a few dozen, others can have upwards of a hundred. And it's pretty easy to assemble an extensive collection with all the patterns and colors available.

For Stanley, the newfound hype is probably a welcome change, considering the company has gone from $70 million in annual sales before 2020 to $750 million in 2023, CNBC reported. The brand has even hyped up people showing off their collections on TikTok.

But for a water bottle promoted as "reusable" and "Built for Life," the overconsumption of these candy-colored steel bottles is counterintuitive.

As Jessica Heiges, a project director at the engineering firm WSP told Wired that if people continue to purchase Stanleys and companies continue to produce to meet that higher demand, consumers could defeat its originally intended purpose.

"There's no possible way that they're going to use the same one over and over again, and therefore reach that environmental breakeven point where it's more beneficial than plastics," Heiges told Wired.

Once people are over the Stanley hype, as they have done for other reusable water bottles before them (highlighting that the issue goes beyond the Stanley), experts also point out that recycling isn't a viable option.

For one, as CBC News pointed out, Stanley does not offer any product recycling options. As Myra Hird, a professor in the environmental studies department at Queen's University, told the outlet, recycling may not be the best solution.

"Recycling creates waste and it often creates toxic waste that is more difficult to dispose of than the original product," Hird said.

There are other proposed solutions in the meantime. For example, Heiges told Wired that Stanley could offer repairs for damaged goods or different ways to keep the tumbler trendy through slight alterations that can be added to the product. That way, a whole new tumbler isn't needed.

However, the ultimate solution to this chaos is a world where we don't need overconsumption to have fun.

"What is the point of all that consuming? Buying so they can participate in these trends? Buying and then promoting all for an audience that is online only?" Kathryn Coduto, assistant professor of media science at Boston University, told The 19th News. "It's kind of scary when you look at the actual environmental impacts and human rights impacts being made that are not good, not great for humans.

PMI Worldwide, the parent company of Stanley, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.