With the concept of keeping our environment green and clean, we start to apply the practice of recycle and reuse in our daily life. I believe that most of us will reuse the mineral water bottle. It’s cheap and convenient for us to find a storage for water.
Have you ever wonder what those numbers in triangle beneath those bottles mean? I used to think it’s a sign for people to categorize what sort of plastic it is before recycling. It’s not wrong, but I never think that such code can also tell us how safe is our plastic bottles.
These codes are known as resin identification code.
These codes are able to help us identify if our plastic bottles are safe to use or not. According to Wikipedia, plastics #3, #6, and #7 have been associated with negative health effects. [Source: Wikipedia]
And according to a Chinese article, it stated that plastics #1, #3, #6, #7 is not safe. [Source grabbed from Jay-han]
For details on why are those bottle unsafe, you can refer to the sources above. And for your information, most of the mineral water bottles are using plastic #1, which is not good for our health. Maybe it’s time for us to use proper bottles to bring water to school or work. Are you ready to discard all your unsafe bottles now?
[hat tip: Jay-han]
Tags: environmental, plastic
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November 10th, 2007 at 8:54 am
I’m ‘green’ people… Try to reuse all the thingthat are posible to be reuse….
November 10th, 2007 at 11:10 am
Those logo’s appears nowhere on any of my plastic bottle’s. nandakore?
November 10th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
My Plastic Bottles said no 1 … is that bad ? Thanks for the info ! its very useful ,
Nice blog BTW !
November 10th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
I heard about the triangle thing too. Just not that aware of it. Thank for reminding me about this important stuff.
Happy saturday!
November 13th, 2007 at 8:19 am
@rambochai,
‘Green’ is good, but please me careful on what source you are reusing, make sure not affecting your health =)
@Orange,
yea, I realized that too. Some mineral plastic bottles don’t even bother to label the codes. =.= (more dangerous)
@GreY,
In fact most mineral water bottle is number 1, which is not really good for our health. Thanks for dropping by ^^
@curryegg,
You’re welcome. And thanks for coming here while I was away.
December 23rd, 2007 at 7:58 am
Was looking for the index and Google brought me here. =)
Well, the gradings are imprinted at the bottom of the container. In layman’s term, the higher the index number, the more complex the polymer structure is. In general, lower index number means lower resistance to heat and chemical reaction. The polymer chain could be broken by kinetic energy due to heat. This means that plastics will melt at a micro scale level and mix with your food or water if you use those kind of plastics to store them.
A rule of thumb, never store hot water using your mineral bottles. =) Oh ya, just bring your own metal containers next time if you wish to dabao.
December 23rd, 2007 at 8:05 am
The comment failed to load when I try to edit my post. Anyway, just want you to know that your blog looks neat and informative. Merry Christmas! =)
December 23rd, 2007 at 4:57 pm
@ColourfulWorld,
Thanks for the visit. I’m glad you find my blog informative. Merry Christmas to you too.
Thanks for the explanation on the plastic bottles. It’s a wise idea to bring our own metal container to make a take away order.
There’s a bug for the comment editing plugin. Eventhough it stated as “Fail to edit” or something, in fact it’s edited. ^^
December 23rd, 2007 at 8:54 pm
Well, just trying to contribute some facts. I’ve been commenting about the same issue at a charity and conservation blog - thegivinghands.org. I’ll come back often for more fresh updates. =) Take care!
December 24th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Thanks ColourfulWorld. Take care too.
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Tupperware products safe? Can someone helps?
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:27 pm
@Jane,
You can check out this article for extra reading. Hope it helps.
April 29th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
I would like to comment that you are saying resin identification code can tell people which type of resin is unsafe for used. I can tell you that plastic is safe to use. Up to date, there is no issue about people death because of using ‘unsafe plastic’. The unsafe concern is just the monomer of the plastic itself like PC. The monomer of PC is Bisphenol A which is poison. But after the polymerization process the monomer became polymer where this polymer is non-poison. So, the PC bottle is safe to use. Are you heard any one death or sick (cancel) cause by using plastic? No! For PVC bottle also safe to use. The PVC bottle itself become poison if you burn PVC bottle. Why? Because its generate Chlorine gases which is harmful.