About

"The most sustainable bottle is the one you never have to replace."

In 2003, our founder, Aaron Broderick, went looking for a simple drink bottle.

Not a plastic bottle. Not glass. Not aluminium.

After searching New Zealand and Australia for over six months, he couldn't find a bottle he trusted.

So he spent 20 years building one.

In 2005, ecotanka became one of the first companies to introduce stainless steel drink bottles to New Zealand — years before reusable bottles became mainstream.

What started as a simple idea became a lifelong mission: create a bottle that is safe, durable, repairable, and built to last decades instead of years.

To achieve that standard, Aaron spent seven years full-time living in China from 2011 to 2017, working directly with factories, building quality systems, and learning every part of the manufacturing process from the ground up. It was there he met his wife and business partner, Lilian, who now leads our China operations and supplier relationships.

In 2018, Aaron and Lilian moved to Australia to re-establish the business for the Australian market. Just as things were gaining momentum, COVID-19 brought everything to a halt.

Rather than walking away, Aaron and Lilian returned to China in 2023 and have been there ever since — continuing to oversee production, quality control, and the next generation of ecotanka products.

In total, Aaron has spent over ten years on the ground in China. That's not a supply chain relationship. That's a commitment.

More than 20 years later, ecotanka is still independently owned and still guided by the same principles:

Build products that last.
Be honest about materials.
Offer replacement parts instead of replacement products.
Reduce waste through durability, not marketing.

Some customers have been using their ecotanka bottles for over 15 years. That's not an accident. That's what we set out to create from day one.

We're not trying to sell you another bottle. We're trying to sell you the last one you'll need for a very long time.

Aaron & Lilian Broderick

Founders, ecotanka