Plastic Bottles – Re-Use or Not?

Re-use Better Than Landfill?

Plastic BottleSo you’ve got plastic bottles around the house (horrors!), and you’re going out for a while or on a long trip, and you want to bring water with you.   Because you read this blog, you’ll be using tap water (filtered or not as you choose) not bottled water, and you’ll need something to carry it in.

Do you re-use those plastic bottles?  You want to be eco-friendly after all, and it’s better to re-use them than to send them to landfill, right?

Yes, it is.  However, you need to be very careful about how you use them.  People say “oh, plastic leeches into the water, it’s dangerous”.  Yes, it can do – but funnily enough that doesn’t seem to stop people buying bottled water!

Here’s the deal.  Plastic bottles, under normal temperatures, are OK.  But, when they get very hot, or very cold, they can indeed leech chemicals into whatever’s inside them.

And even a warm-ish day can make a car sitting in the sun very hot indeed.  If you leave a bottle of water in the car, chances are good that it’s going to get hot.   That’s not good.  Same with really cold weather.    And you don’t want to freeze water in plastic bottles.

The same applies to plastic in the microwave – you don’t want to cook something in a plastic container – always use glass or ceramic instead.   Some plastics say you can heat gently though not cook in the microwave – personally, I don’t take that chance.

So, if you want to carry water with you, re-use a plastic bottle only if you know it won’t get hot.  Buy a re-usable metal water bottle instead.  If you want to keep stuff cold, don’t freeze water in plastic bottles.  Instead, use those re-usable ice-block thingies.

Whatever container you re-use, use normal hygiene and common sense.  Make sure to keep the neck and top clean – those are the prime areas for bacteria to form.  Before filling, make sure your bottle is thoroughly cleaned.

Rob Malone commented on all the pesticides and fertilizers which get washed into our rivers and aquaducts.  And indeed he’s right.  The guys at the water treatment plants have their work cut out for them.  This is not new of course.  Since the industrial revolution, factories have been spewing untreated waste into rivers – thankfully, most developed countries now require them to treat it first, and developing countries often have some regulations in place.

I remember as a child growing up in Ireland that the Guinness tasted better in Ireland than anywhere else.  It was brewed in Dublin whose river, the Liffey, was always a varying shade of green and normally very smelly.   It obviously made the Guinness taste great!  Now the Liffey is much cleaner, and I haven’t done a highly-scientific survey of the Clare-rated flavour of Guinness in Dublin versus other countries – I must add that to my goals!

But I digress.  Water treatment plants have to cope with an awful lot of contaminants, because we tend to take our water supply for granted.

Water Wars?

I firmly believe that we will have water wars in the future.  We fight over anything that is scarce, and water is becoming increasingly scarce.  Along the Nile river, countries are already fighting over their water ‘allocations’.  It happened when settlers moved further West in the USA.  It will happen again.

Other interesting articles on water filters:

Choose the best water filter for YOU!

Which type of water filter is best?

The best water filter for Las Vegas and for Barcelona

Is your drinking water safe and tasty?

Is chlorine in water good or bad?

Bottled versus tap water – the taste test (video)

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Tags

leach chemicals, leech chemicals, re-use water bottles, reuse plastic water bottles, water bottles


  • “Water Wars”. Sounds like a good movie title. Maybe Kevin Costner could star in it…
    This is a great post on the dangers of using plastic for Water Bottles , or Cooking with plastic. A great reminder to use natural materials for cooking and drinking. Thanks!

    Andrew

  • GREAT POST!!!! I had suspected that hot plastic would leach but I had no idea cold plastic will too. We do benifit runs/walks (like the Susan G Koman Race For A Cure) we will take a cooler on wheels and freeze several bottles of water and through them in the cooler to keep the other water cold. Now I know that is not a good idea.

    I am going to have replace all of our reusable plastic water bottles with metal ones.

    Also I didnt’ know you were from Ireland – very cool. My youngest daughter is Molly Malone – doesn’t get much more Irish than that.

  • Seems incredible to me that things we took for granted in the 50’s and 60’s when we were growing up (water from the tap, water from a sprinkler to water the grass, clean lake water to swim in) might be something we would live to see wars fought over….
    Sonya Lenzo

  • OK Clare you have me somewhat lost as to what I should do. I need a gym water bottle that I can use on say a cardio machine that won’t leech chemicals. I do re-use water bottles or should I say I reuse the squirting plastic water bottles. Do you know one that may have a treatment to prevent this?

    • My guess is that it wouldn’t get massively hot on a cardio machine – but if it does, then look for (a) a plastic bottle that is BPA free, or (b) a metal water bottle. Both will consume resources to make, but you will be re-using them. Find models that are dishwasher safe for your convenience. Thanks for your comment!

  • Great article. I switched to a metal water bottle a couple years ago. Makes a lot of sense. REgarding water wars, what is your take on selling water rights in the U.S.? Some are against it but usually when something is assigned a value, people are more careful about it’s use. Right now seems like there are a lot of straws in the rivers out west especially, but no one really regulates the use of the water as far as I know.

    TKS

  • I have seen non metal water bottles for sale now that are BPA-free, but you made a good point about the sun’s affects on a container. I suspect it would be best to keep even that container out of the sun too.

  • Clare,

    This is a well thought-out article with excellent advice. Personally, I prefer not to re-use plastic bottles, but if I need to, now I know it is just as bad to let the water get too cold as it is to get to hot!

    Stay Extraordinary and Do Great Things, Neil

  • As a mom, I always keep a case of water in the car. Solves the problem of “I’m thirsty, can we drive thru…” Nope, have some water, gotta drink right here.
    I will keep in mind your valuable advice with the change in weather here in New York.

    Jennifer Battaglino

  • This is very helpful information. I have always heard that you should not reuse plastic bottles. Your post puts that myth to rest.

    I love the Guiness story! Might be time for another taste test.

    Dennis

  • Hi Green Goddess,

    Thank you so much for answering my question about reusing plastic bottles! That really helps. It’s so funny. I remember years ago we WOULD stick our plastic bottles filled with water into the freezer. They would freeze, or certainly a lot of the water would freeze into ice, and that was exactly what we were aiming for! We would then take those out and bring them with us to the beach when were headed there for the day. That is one of my devices for cold drinking water when I am driving back and forth between family visits and Las Vegas. Now I know that doing the extreme cold leeches the plastic too! Thanks for the green eco friendly information GG!

    Happy Dating and Relationships,

    April Braswell

  • There are tensions starting in parts of the world already over water. Wars fought over water are a very real possibility. You must have it to live.

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