Can you reuse your plastic water bottle?

Question

I reuse a 20 oz water bottle every day. I refill it from the water cooler. Someone told me that the plastic breaks down, and I am drinking in chemicals.

Answer 1

When my kids were in high school track their coach encouraged re-using plastic water bottles. Coach said to wash the bottle with hot water and 1/2 tsp of liquid dishwasher detergent (it disinfects and rinses out easier). We've been re-using washed plastic water bottles for years now.

You may also want to read this article linked by Urban Legends: Researcher Dispels Myth of Dioxins and Plastic Water Bottles
Johns Hopkins Public Health News Center, 24 June 2004
http://urbanlegends.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.jhsph.edu/PublicHealthNews/articles/Halden%5Fdioxins.html

Answer 2

yes, of course you can re use your plastic water bottle! you must have heard of the saying reduce, re use, recycle? well that is a prime example of just what you are doing!! It is a very enviromental thing you are doing so why would you want to stop? you are helping the earth! beleive it or not! for you to get any chemical overcast from poly fibric material is abserd. It would take years and years of re use to break the plastic down, and even then you would not be exposed to any type of chemical. You would have to eat the bottle, or melt it and drink it!! then and only then would you be exposed to the chemicals.

Answer 3

It takes a few years for plastic to break down. You are doing a fine job of recycling by re-using the same bottle. You could wash the bottle out though, for sanitary reasons!

Answer 4

Reusing water bottles is not really safe because of bacteria and germs. If you are cleaning the water bottles before each use, then it is fine. However, if you're just putting water in them without cleaning them, then you're continually adding more and more germs.

Answer 5

I always re-use my bottles. They last me about a month before I destroy them, usually by stepping on it, losing it in the car, etc. I don't know about the drinking chemicals, though. Face it, if you're drinking tap water, you're drinking chemicals, right? Is drinking the plastic worse than that?

Answer 6

no it's not true unless ur drinking acidy water , but change the bottle every month.
plastic water bottle dont break down and release chemicals in the water.

Answer 7

reusing a plastic water bottle is not a good idea, it reserves germs if it is not washed, and can make you ill after reusing like this..

Answer 8

no, that was a good 20 years ago, things have improved remarkably since then. what you need to do though every day is to wash it thoroughly, especially if you are drinking straight out of the body. germs can build up. but if you wash it thoroughly it should be ok.

Answer 9

I am in trouble too if this unsafe. I reuse my bottles all the time.

Answer 10

I always re-use mines