h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi folks.
My daughters teacher has just anounced that children have to bring in clear water bottles for use during the school day to prevent them smuggling in squash.
Now we had a situation at her last school where the school itself gave us all clear bottles of water and said it is ok to wash and refill them every day. After a couple of weeks the recalled them as the ready filled water bottles are not suitable for reuse.
Ive found conflicting advice on the net about reusing water bottles, but the main seems to be its the hot water you wash them in can degrade the plastic and release toxins as the bottles are not manifactured for repeated washing.
Bottles made for reuse are always colored. School demands they have a sports cap style nozzle so screw caps are out. I can only think of the prefilled botles and Im certainly not buying one for each day!

Can anyone enlighten me more on this subject? Is it safe to reuse the bottles?

If you're having just water in them, do you need to wash them in hot water?

If you replace them every week or every other week (as the plastic will get old and brittle etc. anyway) and you swill them and fill them with clean water, I dont see why you'd need to 'clean' them.

I've been re-filling my current water bottle every day for about 2 months now, and I haven't contracted any mysterious diseases.

I just threw my last one away cos the cap lid had finally given up the ghost and wasn't sealing properly.

I amn't dead.

It is true that you don't need to clean the water bottle if it is just going to have water in it but if you are filling it with fruit juice or fizzy drinks then you must get rid of it after a few weeks because the juice leaves a bit of fruit goo at the bottom and the goo will definitely contain some sort of bacteria.

This question was posed re: school wanting the children drinking water instead of squash. As it needs to be clear and not sparkling, for ease of identification, they'll be fine. I wouldn't suggest you dont wash a bottle that's had other stuff in it!

I wouldn't suggest to leave the bottle dirty either but as you pointed out that all you need to do is swiggle some clean water in it and then pour it out instead of washing it with hot water.

Sos you think its more of a bacterial concern rather than a 'toxin leaching out of the plastic' concern then. And a 'we need you to buy more bottles so we can make a profit' ploy on the manufacturers part, thats why they put the do not refill label on the bottles.

Damn..I was looking forward to an argument with the teacher....

"prevent them smuggling in squash"

As someone who went to a school where knives were becoming common even when he left six years ago, I think that their priorities might be a tad skewed.

Drinking of squash is prohibited exept at dinner time....dunno why. And fizzy drinks and chocolate are not allowed at all

>> School demands they have a sports cap style nozzle so screw caps are out. <<

Have they said why they've imposed this infantile restriction? You could always have a good argument about that!

RF

I can see that none of you have ever had to try and control 30 or so school age kids off their chops on e numbers and sugar. Or had to deal with kids who have put alcohol in their bottles to drink during the day.

And sometimes it isn't even the kids who do it. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3173820/Mother-investigated-after-giving-girls-vodka-on-charity-walk.html

Yes, hot water is a problem because of the chemicals. But you can use luke warm water and soap to clean, and then rinse out well. Of you can use plain water just to rinse. If you are worried about bacteria and such, then a mild vinegar rinse will disinfect.

I try and avoid drinking out of plastic as much as possible. It's unlikely that one plastic drinking bottle is going to be a problem chemically on health, but it's the lifetime exposure to toxins that we didn't evolve with that's the issue.

You can fit those sports nozzles on glass bottles. Not sure how the school would feel about glass though. If it were me I'd be buying stainless steel bottles and sending a letter that it would only be filled with water. That'd be a good fight too

Don't they have water fountains anymore? When did we become so obsessed with water that we have to carry it around all the time with us?

Tis such a great way to teach responsibility to have such ridgid and in many ways prety pointless petty rules and regualtions... So I guess bringing a carton of milk or such like in would also be something preventied by this
As to reusing water bottles I tend to reuse them until the top goes and won't hold tight anymore, but I don't necessarily use the bottle that often, just when I'm traveling by train really for those times when one is waiting five hours in the boiling hot sun for the coach that will be there in one hour, outside thetford railway station.
So can't kids buy fizzy drinks, soda, bottles of pop at the school canteen/tuc shop anymore? I guess they've banned all sweets too... No wonder the kids turn to violence and drugs poor oppressed blighters.