# Why can't plastic bottles be refilled? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 10, 2003, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-plastic-bottles-be-refilled/187383 "2003-07-10T03:02:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jennifer\_McIlwee\_Myers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@Jennifer\_McIlwee\_Myers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennifer_McIlwee_Myers)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-plastic-bottles-be-refilled/187383/1 "2003-07-10T03:02:14Z")
Greetings, all. A nagging if unimportant question has been plaguing me. Both two-liter soda bottles and one-and-a-half-liter water bottles all say the following on the label (all in caps): “Do Not Refill.” I’ve been re-using bottles from bottled water forever, since I have this magical thing in my house where I can turn a knob and water comes out. But does anyone here know what horrible thing might happen because of my cavilier attitude towards this clear warning? My main thought is that this is to mark the bottles as not to be re-filled at the plant (like some glass returnable soda bottles used to be). Nonetheless, I sometimes worry that the same people who find those who used to hunt down those who tore off mattress tags are now occupied in hunting down serial bottle-refillers. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-plastic-bottles-be-refilled/187383/2 "2003-07-10T03:13:55Z")
My WAG: I’d worry that I haven’t sufficiently sanitized the inside of the bottle. After a while, who know what kind of cooties could be growing in there, even with frequent rinsing. I’ll reuse bottles for water for a week or so, but that’s it. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-plastic-bottles-be-refilled/187383/3 "2003-07-10T03:19:05Z")
They don’t care whether YOU refill it, just as no one cares whether YOU pull the tag off your mattress. Both instructions are for manufacturers and retailers; mattresses must declare what they are made of (“made of all-new material that is fire retardant…”), and water bottles must be sterile (well, close to it) when they are filled. You can’t sterilize a plastic bottle that’s been sold, had someone’s mouth all over it, and been growing germs for weeks in the recycling bin – if you try, you’ll destroy the bottle. You especially can’t do it if you’re the owner of a mom ‘n’ pop grocery store who wants a bigger cut of the profits on bottled water. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-plastic-bottles-be-refilled/187383/4 "2003-07-10T03:33:01Z")
Oh god. At college, I used the same bottles over and over…just refilling them because it was easier. Am I going to die? …if I do it for the next three years? ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-plastic-bottles-be-refilled/187383/5 "2003-07-10T03:39:37Z")
How odd. I just today was looking through my old emails, and came across this letter that I received as a job safety tip: > [@](#): > > THINK TWICE BEFORE REUSING THAT PLASTIC WATER BOTTLE! > > If you’re in the habit of washing and reusing plastic water bottles, you may want to limit the practice. (Can you say back-wash? Bacteria?) Washing water bottles before you reuse them can help cut down on illness-causing bacteria. However, researchers caution that washing and reusing disposable water bottles over and over may accelerate the breakdown of the plastic, increasing your exposure to potentially harmful chemicals. Limit yourself to one or two reuses. > > For further information, see the OSEM’s National Safety Month web page at [http://ofeo.si.edu/safety\_health/A%20Bad%20Bottle%20Habit.doc](http://ofeo.si.edu/safety_health/A%20Bad%20Bottle%20Habit.doc) or contact blah blah blah… This letter was from last month, and I see that link isn’t working, so it may be permanently defunct. ---
**Author:** ![Jennifer\_McIlwee\_Myers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@Jennifer\_McIlwee\_Myers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennifer_McIlwee_Myers)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-plastic-bottles-be-refilled/187383/6 "2003-07-10T03:57:07Z")
**Nametag** : I know that mattress tags can be taken off by the purchaser – the reference to mattress tag police was tongue-in-cheek. Those tags _used to_ say “do not remove under penalty of law,” but nowadays, mattress tags do actually indicate that the end-user can remove the tags. Water bottles do not similarly indicate that the end-user can re-use them. Do you have any hard data to back up your statement that the refilling warning is an “industrial” type of warning, with no intent that it be noted by consumers? Could it also be to tell people not to take the bottles to be refilled (back when we used to do that with glass bottles)? I also wonder, since plastic is somewhat permeable, if the warning could stem from the worry that people will refill plastic bottles with stuff that would not react well to whatever was inside the bottle previously. Then the water bottle statement would be legal overrun from the concern about people refilling, say, plastic anti-freeze bottles. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-plastic-bottles-be-refilled/187383/7 "2003-07-10T03:57:52Z")
It may be cheaper for the bottle companies to grind them up and use the plastic on something else, than to buy equipment to wash them. Even glass bottles were only good for up to six washes before they were ground down. Declan ---
**Author:** ![viking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@viking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/viking)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-plastic-bottles-be-refilled/187383/8 "2003-07-10T06:38:58Z")
most home-brew shops sell half-liter and one-liter plastic bottles clearly intended to not only be refilled, but re-pressurized many times over. I have never seen or heard any warnings about this being a problem. Granted, we also buy sanitizing solution to soak them in overnight between refills, and the seal under the cap is hard to get clean, so new caps are a good idea every 2-3 refills, but other than that, the bottles are good for a while… ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-plastic-bottles-be-refilled/187383/9 "2003-07-10T07:53:34Z")
Pepsi in Mexico reuses plastic bottles but they use a multimillion dollar machine called a “sniffer” to make sure the bottle has not been used for harmful stuff. A bottle which has been used (say) to carry gasoline will be rejected by the sniffer. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-plastic-bottles-be-refilled/187383/10 "2003-07-10T08:26:30Z")
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen reusable plastic soda bottles in Denmark (in fact I think I recall a Danish colleague telling me that the supplier was obliged to arrange for collection and re-use/recycling of empty bottles). The bottles in question were a fair bit thicker and tougher than ordinary ones and were quite scuffed around the shoulders, seeming to indicate that they were by no means new. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-plastic-bottles-be-refilled/187383/11 "2003-07-10T14:07:18Z")
From [greennature.com](http://greennature.com) " The reuse of plastic bottles presents several special concerns. Plastic bottles are more likely than glass to absorb contaminants that could be released back into food when the bottle is refilled. Analytical protocols may need to be developed to demonstrate that, after cleaning, contaminant levels are sufficiently low so that the contents of the refilled bottle would not be adulterated. " ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-plastic-bottles-be-refilled/187383/12 "2003-07-10T14:37:01Z")
A few weeks ago one of our local news channels did a segment on reusing water bottles. Everyone was amazed at the level of germs and bacteria, even if the bottles had been washed. The worst were bottles used at the gym, that contained stuff transferred from the equipment to your hands, plus sweat. It all wound up on/in the bottle. They concluded that you should at least wash it with hot water and detergent, then let it dry thoroughly before refilling. Better yet, buy a new bottle. ---
**Author:** ![Jennifer\_McIlwee\_Myers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@Jennifer\_McIlwee\_Myers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennifer_McIlwee_Myers)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-plastic-bottles-be-refilled/187383/13 "2003-07-10T15:18:08Z")
All this about germs and other horrors (from **Achernar** and **panache45** ) seems a bit disingenuous, to say the least. You can buy cheap plastic bottles that are intended for repeated use at any supermarket, or if you like suveniers, at any theme park. People refill them and reuse them without washing all the time. Ask a bicyclist when the last time he washed the bottle clipped to his bike, and you may get a blank stare. Also, we use plastic or mostly plastic commuter cups daily. Lots of people seldom wash their persona coffee mugs, whether they’re plastic commuter cups or fine china. In other words, if plastic containers of various hardness and grades are re-used all the time, why the worry about water bottles? Also, why would anyone care about a news story showing that if you refill and drink out of something a lot of times without washing it, it gets a lot of germs? Not only is this nothing like a random sample or a serious study, but also there is the “duh” factor. Why anyone would believe that you can magically re-use _any_ kind o’ bottle this way and have it be sterile? And how did they wash the bottles that were still “dirty” after washing? How did those washed bottles compare to other drinking cups and bottles washed in the same way? (It’s a bit of a leap to believe that anything in your kitchen is bacteria-free.) Then there’s this: > [@](#): > > researchers caution that washing and reusing disposable water bottles over and over may accelerate the breakdown of the plastic, increasing your exposure to potentially harmful chemicals. That sounds an awful lot like the “don’t microwave anything plastic” hysteria emails going around. I mean, if oil companies can nationally distribute “official” road-safety brochures warning that attackers often hide in back seats of cars while you’re paying for gas, then official safety dudes can be wrong about this. I’d want a study cite or other more convincing info on this one. ---
**Author:** ![Isabelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5a626/32.png) [@Isabelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isabelle)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-plastic-bottles-be-refilled/187383/14 "2003-07-10T19:17:05Z")
cooties live in plastic and can not be washed out with tap heated water. So for the sake of covering the company’s butt they tell you not to refill them ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-plastic-bottles-be-refilled/187383/15 "2003-07-10T19:48:26Z")
I’ve got some different sized bottles from two different companies in my house right now - a few of them were purchased (full of water) from convenience stores, another from a sporting goods store, and none of them say “Do Not Refill”. These are not sports bottles, they are purchased full. Intended for one use maybe, but I keep refilling them out of my refrigerator’s fileterd water dispenser. For biking, I rotate my bottles. I have about seven of them and give them a quick wash (because the get covered in road dirt, mostly) and rinse before I reuse them. Nothing about the bottles says do not reuse them, I’d be spending a fortune in biking bottles. I drink a lot of water. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-plastic-bottles-be-refilled/187383/16 "2003-07-10T20:35:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zoggie \* > **Oh god. At college, I used the same bottles over and over…just refilling them because it was easier. Am I going to die?** Yes, absolutely. Eventually. Just not necessarily for that reason. ---
**Author:** ![j.c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@j.c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j.c)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-plastic-bottles-be-refilled/187383/17 "2003-07-10T22:14:14Z")
**Jennifer McIlwee Myers** pegs it. I’m pretty sure that whatever grows in a CamelBak is a lot worse than what might be my souvenir water bottle from a Breast Cancer fun run. ---
**Author:** ![herman\_and\_bill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f1d935/32.png) [@herman\_and\_bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/herman_and_bill)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-plastic-bottles-be-refilled/187383/18 "2003-07-10T23:16:57Z")
The disposable bottles are made from a lesser grade of plastic that can’t stand up to the rigors of steralization with out decomposing and releasing the chemicals they were manufactured from back into the contents. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-plastic-bottles-be-refilled/187383/19 "2003-07-11T03:44:53Z")
I’ve been using an MSR water bag (similar to CamelBak) for the past 8 years. I wash it once a year with bleach solution – whether it needs it or not. So far, it looks like new and I’m alive and kicking. I’m sure that plastic bottles can contain germs, but surely they are susceptible to washing, bleach solution and other methods. I’m sure plastic can deteriorate, but I strongly suspect it can’t subtly poison you. I haven’t yet seen a “One use only or our lawyers will bring down an evil incantation on your head” disclaimwer on any plastic bottle. h&b - what are the chemicals that I’m imbibing if I clean and re-use a plastic bottle? Suppose I simply drink very old bottled water - any danger there? ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-plastic-bottles-be-refilled/187383/20 "2003-07-11T04:11:02Z")
I have an old military canteen made of tough plastic that I’ve been drinking out of for years, and I don’t know how old it was when I got it. I haven’t gotten sick any more then I usually do, though its usually just me drinking out of it 99% of the time. Does this factor into the dicussion at all? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-plastic-bottles-be-refilled/187383.md?page=2)