3 ms·

Is it bad to reuse plastic water bottles?

16 points by softwaredoug 5y ago

haltingproblem 5y ago
This is exactly opposite of what science says. New plastic actually leaches more compounds into water. As plastic gets old, its leaching capacity goes down. Old plastic is safer than newer plastic. However, most plastic bottles, including BPA-free are estrogenic. They are bad for men and women causing a variety of problems which are still poorly understood. The worse use-case is plastic filled bottles that have sat or have been transported in hot environments which is to say all of them. Ditto for hot takeout food served in plastic containers - soups, curries, etc. Do your research and don't fall to hoaxes that benefit vested industries that will profit from you not reusing water bottles.
simonblack 5y ago
It's certainly bad for the companies that sell water bottles in plastic. It would be interesting to see a comparison of water that is put into refilled plastic bottles versus the tap water that is transported in today's plastic water pipes. I venture to say that it wouldn't much different and that both cases would have negligible leached-plastic compounds.
- eurasiantiger 5y ago
  The one thing that doesn’t get talked about is lead leaching from plastic pipes. You wouldn’t think that is a thing but it totally is.
- atatatat 5y ago
  > both cases would have negligible leached-plastic compounds. I was with you until this. This comment will not age well.
  - simonblack 5y ago
    I probably wasn't clear-enough. After sufficient time has elapsed, the amount leached out drops further and further. After several years (a lot less than many plastic pipes' lifetimes) that amount of leaching will have dropped to very low levels. Just like radio-activity never actually drops to zero, but declines exponentially to negligible amounts after around 10-20 half-lives, I similarly see the same thing happening with plastic-leaching. As I said earlier, we don't appear to have had enough studies on the problem which look at things like plastic-leaching half-lives. As for not ageing well, I'm not either. <grin>
readonthegoapp 5y ago
So what is the answer?

16 points by softwaredoug 5y ago

This is exactly opposite of what science says. New plastic actually leaches more compounds into water. As plastic gets old, its leaching capacity goes down. Old plastic is safer than newer plastic. However, most plastic bottles, including BPA-free are estrogenic. They are bad for men and women causing a variety of problems which are still poorly understood. The worse use-case is plastic filled bottles that have sat or have been transported in hot environments which is to say all of them. Ditto for hot takeout food served in plastic containers - soups, curries, etc. Do your research and don't fall to hoaxes that benefit vested industries that will profit from you not reusing water bottles.

simonblack 5y ago

It's certainly bad for the companies that sell water bottles in plastic. It would be interesting to see a comparison of water that is put into refilled plastic bottles versus the tap water that is transported in today's plastic water pipes. I venture to say that it wouldn't much different and that both cases would have negligible leached-plastic compounds.

eurasiantiger 5y ago
The one thing that doesn’t get talked about is lead leaching from plastic pipes. You wouldn’t think that is a thing but it totally is.
atatatat 5y ago
> both cases would have negligible leached-plastic compounds. I was with you until this. This comment will not age well.
- simonblack 5y ago
  I probably wasn't clear-enough. After sufficient time has elapsed, the amount leached out drops further and further. After several years (a lot less than many plastic pipes' lifetimes) that amount of leaching will have dropped to very low levels. Just like radio-activity never actually drops to zero, but declines exponentially to negligible amounts after around 10-20 half-lives, I similarly see the same thing happening with plastic-leaching. As I said earlier, we don't appear to have had enough studies on the problem which look at things like plastic-leaching half-lives. As for not ageing well, I'm not either. <grin>

readonthegoapp 5y ago

So what is the answer?