Why you need to stop reusing plastic bottles. The dangers of reusing plastic bottles

A team of researchers conducted a test and tested a group of athletes, or rather, their water bottles. The scientists wanted to find out how clean plastic containers stay when they are regularly refilled with water. The result of the test was shocking: at least 300,000 colony-forming units (CFU) were found per square centimeter Treadmill Reviews. Water Bottle Gems Revealed ..

Colony-forming units (CFU) - an indicator indicating the number of colony-forming bacteria in one milliliter of medium. These bacteria are capable of self-replication. If they enter the nutrient medium, they form a colony.

By comparison, a dog toy contains about 3,000 CFU. Pretty big difference, right?

Here are a few more reasons to not reuse a plastic bottle.

How then to drink from a bottle

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Of course, we are not suggesting that you stop. But we want you to think about what you drink from and how often you clean your bottles. After all, everything that your mouth touches becomes infected with bacteria. The smaller the contact area of ​​the bottle with your mouth, the less opportunities for bacteria to multiply and spread.

• Bottles with twist-off caps, slider caps and sports necks are the most suitable for spreading bacteria and dangerous for you. This means that bacteria are literally teeming in such containers. And they can harm you.
• A bottle with a straw showed the best result. This type of container significantly reduces the chances of bacteria to multiply.

However, even a relatively safe bottle contains slightly fewer CFUs than a public toilet seat. So yeah, it's all pretty gross.

How to protect yourself

But we need to drink water! In addition, reusing bottles is economical and environmentally friendly. How can you protect yourself?

• Choose bottles with a straw. If there is none, then insert the tube through the neck yourself.
• When reusing a bottle, be sure to wash it hot water and .
• If you are thinking about buying a permanent water bottle, then give preference to steel samples. They are less favorable for the growth of bacteria.

Keep drinking from your favorite bottle, just do it wisely. Maybe this study is a good reason to get rid of old containers and update the "collection". Your health will definitely thank you for such a decision.

In the 21st century, plastic is a real problem for environment. It has become such a common material that it is used to make very a large number products: furniture, toys, storage systems and containers, car parts, bathroom accessories, etc. Yes, many of these things are much cheaper than their counterparts made from natural ingredients, but they are harmful to the Earth's ecology and human health. In this article, we will take an example plastic bottles Why you should stop using plastic.

Harm of plastic bottles

Plastic bottle pollute the environment

A plastic bottle is perhaps one of the most common containers at the present time. As a rule, it is used once, and then it is thrown away. It's no secret that it takes about 500 years to completely decompose, and according to certain data, 13 billion plastic bottles are produced annually! Just think about these numbers! Do you realize the magnitude of the problem? We talked about this in more detail in the article "". We think that comments are unnecessary here ...

The simplest thing anyone can do to solve this environmental problem is to use a reusable water bottle, preferably a glass one - this is a kind of .

The dangers of reusing plastic bottles

Plastic bottle - harm to the body

The plastic bottle is toxic

It is also worth using a reusable drinking bottle for the reason that some types of plastic containers emit chemical compounds dangerous to the human body.

If you are one of those who reuse a plastic bottle, then we advise you to turn it over and pay attention to the special icons on the bottom, namely the number in the triangle. This designation shows what type of plastic it was made of.

• Marking "1" (PET or PETE) - can be used only 1 time. It should be kept out of the sun and avoid heat, otherwise it begins to release toxins, which in turn enter the water and then into your body.
• Marking "3" and "7" (PVC and PC). As in the first case, such containers emit harmful chemical compounds. They enter your body with food and drinks, accumulate in it and cause many diseases.

If you are not comfortable using a glass bottle every day, you can purchase a reusable polyethylene container. It is indicated by the numbers "2" and "4". Also suitable material is polypropylene - "5" or PP. They will not be harmful if kept in them. cold water and disinfect from time to time.

Plastic bottles are a source of germs

Plastic bottles serve as ideal conditions for the spread of harmful bacteria. According to some scientists, drinking drinks from them can be equated with licking a pet's toy. This is due to the fact that a person puts a container on furniture in in public places, takes it with dirty hands, rarely washes, pours liquid into it room temperature etc.

In order to reduce the chance of bacterial growth, it is recommended that you wash your bottles every day with soapy water, vinegar, or an antibacterial mouthwash.

Great attention should be paid to the necks, since it is there that the highest concentration of microorganisms. If you think that lids and caps will protect you from them, then you are mistaken. They are also full of harmful bacteria. Therefore, try not to touch the neck when drinking.

A lot is being said about the dangers of plastic bottles for humans and the environment in general. In various sources, more and more information appears on ways to avoid disastrous consequences. And, of course, each person must start with himself!

Do you buy water in a plastic bottle?

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22.02.2016

Reuse plastic bottles has direct environmental and financial benefits. Washing and reusing plastic bottles reduces waste and saves energy. Recycling plastic bottles has far-reaching benefits for the environment as well.

Hundreds of millions of plastic water bottles are consumed every day around the world. The bottles then end up on roadsides, litter waterways, or end up in incinerators and pile up in landfills. Plastic can take hundreds of years to decompose in landfills.

Meeting consumer demand for PET water bottles requires millions of barrels of oil each year to be manufactured, transported and disposed of. This amount of oil is enough to fill about a hundred thousand cars for a whole year.

Recycling plastic bottles means less need to make new bottles and less waste in landfills. In addition to the environmental benefits of reusing bottles, there are also direct and indirect financial benefits. Reusing a plastic bottle ten times saves ten times the cost of producing the same bottle from scratch. Buying and reusing one bottle throughout the year translates into significant financial savings for the family budget.

While direct financial savings are the most obvious and significant benefit, reusing bottles also has indirect financial benefits. Decrease in consumption natural resources means lower monthly utility bills, less pressure on landfills and waste disposal, and can also lead to lower taxes or other fees.

Most plastic beverage bottles are made from polyethylene terephthalate. This type of plastic is safe to be reused for food and medicine. However, not everything is so simple and it is necessary to keep in mind several important nuances that must be taken into account. Reusing the bottle without cleaning encourages the growth of potentially harmful bacteria and it is important to clean them well first.

Most people reuse plastic bottles to store water or other liquids. However, there are hundreds of different ways to reuse plastic bottles. Here are a few interesting ideas for reusing bottles:

• cut off the top of the bottle and use it to store pencils or art supplies;
• use a plastic bottle as a piggy bank by cutting a slot in its upper part;
• fill a plastic bottle halfway with water and place it in the freezer - this way you get ready-made ice for home use;
• use the top of the bottle as a funnel and the bottom half as a plastic plant pot;
• fill the bottle equal parts butter and water, add glitter or food coloring and decorate on the outside - water and oil don't mix, resulting in interesting shapes when shaken - this is a fun project for kids.

While recycling plastic bottles is certainly better for the environment than just throwing them in the trash, recycling uses energy to process the plastic. In addition, the recycling process produces wastewater and pollutants. Reusing plastic bottles does not require additional energy costs and does not contribute to environmental pollution.

Ideally, it's better for the environment to avoid purchasing and using plastic bottles altogether. Of course, this is practically impossible. Therefore, reusing bottles as many times as possible remains the only option today. When the bottles become completely unusable, they must be recycled or taken out and thrown into containers for PET bottles. This practice will provide the greatest environmental and financial benefits for all.

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Did you know that there is a whole floating island in the ocean made of plastic garbage thrown from ships by tourists? And this is not just an island - its size is commensurate with the size of the US state of Texas. And this is almost 700 thousand km2! And how many islands are smaller on land? Mountains of garbage, the processing of which will take hundreds or even thousands of years for nature! And this does not mean at all that in a thousand years we (or rather, our distant descendants) will receive mountains of useful compost.

Recycling plastic bottles is a pressing problem for the whole world. In order to at least slightly reduce the amount of this kind of garbage in nature, you just need to try to reuse such bottles, instead of buying another plastic thing, making simple household items out of them (washbasin, watering can, vase), weights for sports or even flower beds from plastic bottles.

There are many ideas for reusing plastic bottles - and rightly so. They make a variety of household appliances, mobile phone stands, piggy banks,. The “very skillful hands” program alone brings a sea of ​​“plastic” ideas, so to speak, to the masses. We will not make art objects. Our plastic bottle ideas specific and practical.

In the kitchen

Plastic bottles can freeze liquids in the freezer, for example, if you buy homemade milk for a child once or twice a week. Milk just won't last that long in the fridge. And if you pour it into a plastic bottle (a little incomplete), squeeze it a little so that the air comes out and twist it in this state, you can store it for quite a long time. So "eggplants" can be used repeatedly, each time thoroughly washing with water.

Do not worry about the fact that plastic releases harmful substances with prolonged use. This is at high temperature. You don't have to worry about the freezer.

For flowers

By simply cutting off half of the bottle, you can use the lower part as a flower pot or seedling, having previously made holes in the bottom for drainage.

For the garden

• A very useful idea is to make a “smart” watering can from a plastic bottle. To do this, you need to cut off the bottom, figure out a long “nose”, turn it over and insert it into the ground. This will help dosed watering and fertilizing plants, both home and garden. Such a watering can is especially relevant when you leave for a few days and there is no one to entrust your flowers to.

• Another option that comes in handy in the garden is that halves of bottles (both upper and lower) can be used to close flower seedlings and seedlings in the spring. The upper parts are even preferable: in order for the plant to breathe during the day, the lid can be removed and screwed on at night.

On a hike

To create an improvised washbasin, by the way, very simple and convenient, it is enough to cut off the bottom of the bottle and hang it upside down on a tree. Now you can pour water. When you need to wash your hands, unscrew the lid a little so that a thin trickle of water forms, and then screw the lid back on.

To prevent debris from getting into the water, the bottom can be cut off not completely, leaving it as a lid. And don't nail the bottle to a tree! Just tie with twine.

sports and health

Another way that will benefit both you and nature: make dumbbells out of plastic bottles. The simplest option is to fill half-liter bottles with water. It only seems at first glance that half-kilogram dumbbells are useless - try to work out with them!

You can come up with a more complex design, and use sand as a filler.

Bottle flower beds

. Flowerbeds from plastic bottles are truly a “bottomless” way to recycle them.

Take a LOT of “eggplants”, preferably of the same color and size, fill them with sand, close the lid tightly. Then outline the contours of the future flower bed (to make the line even - use a twine stretched between two pegs, and for a round flower bed - an impromptu compass - two sticks tied at the top) and dig a trench with a depth of "half a bottle".

We put our bottles upside down, drop them "to the waist" and tamp the ground. You can paint them with paint.In principle, eggplants can not be covered with sand - use empty ones (at the same time, do not cover them with lids, otherwise they risk losing their shape with a sharp change in air temperature). However, it will be more difficult to cope with them, and the curb will turn out to be less durable.

By the way, in the same way (only without falling asleep with sand, of course) you can make a flower bed from unnecessary glass bottles(of course they should be the same).

And finally, I would like to say: once again buying bottled soda like cola or fanta, think about whether it will bring at least some benefit to your body or nature. Not? Put the bottle back on the counter. As great as the tips for using and disposing of plastic bottles are, it's better that you don't have to use them at all.

Ksenia Poddubnaya

Recycling of a variety of polymer waste is defined as the industrial processing of used plastic products into polymer raw materials suitable for the production of other products. Recycling is not used to get energy.
Recycling of plastics.
The number of polymer products is increasing every year. Based on this, many modern companies are engaged in such a process as the recycling of plastic bottles, boxes, films, etc. including in order to avoid environmental pollution.
Recycling of polymers is extremely important, as the disposal of plastic waste is a worldwide problem. Through the press of national laws different countries world, protests against the disposal of polymer waste, there is less and less waste of polymer materials in landfills. Recycling of plastic has become a very important problem for all mankind, which must be dealt with today.
The use of secondary raw materials as a new resource base is one of the most dynamically developing areas of polymer materials processing in the world. For Russia, it is relatively new. However, the interest in obtaining cheap resources, which are secondary polymers, is very tangible, so the world experience in their recycling should be in demand.
In countries where environmental protection is given great importance, the volumes of recycling of secondary polymers are constantly increasing. Legislation obliges legal entities and individuals to dispose of plastic waste (flexible packaging, bottles, cups, etc.) into special containers for their subsequent disposal. Today, the agenda is not only the task of recycling waste polymer materials, but also the restoration of the resource base. However, the possibility of using polymer waste for re-production is limited by their unstable and worse mechanical properties compared to the original polymers. The end products with their use often do not meet aesthetic criteria. For some types of products, the use of secondary raw materials is generally prohibited by the current sanitary or certification standards.
For example, in a number of countries there is a ban on the use of certain recycled polymers for the production of food packaging. The process of obtaining finished products from recycled plastics is associated with a number of difficulties. The reuse of recycled materials requires a special reconfiguration of the process parameters due to the fact that the recycled material changes its viscosity, and may also contain non-polymer inclusions. In some cases, special mechanical requirements are imposed on the finished product, which simply cannot be met when using recycled polymers. Therefore, for the use of recycled polymers, it is necessary to achieve a balance between the desired properties of the final product and the average characteristics of the recycled material. The basis for such developments should be the idea of ​​creating new products from recycled plastics, as well as partial replacement of primary materials with secondary ones in traditional products. AT recent times the process of displacement of primary polymers in production has intensified so much that in the USA alone more than 1,400 items of products from recycled plastics are produced, which were previously produced only using primary raw materials.
Thus, recycled plastic products can be used to produce products that were previously made from virgin materials. For example, it is possible to produce plastic bottles from waste, i.e. recycling in a closed cycle. Also, secondary polymers are suitable for the manufacture of objects whose properties may be worse than those of analogues made using primary raw materials. The last solution is called "cascade" waste processing. It is successfully used, for example, by FIAT auto, which recycles the bumpers of end-of-life cars into pipes and floor mats for new cars.
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