PET vs PC as Water bottle

[effi jono]

Where I live in Indonesia, the plastic water bottles are re-used many times and only
discarded when it is broken or unusable.
Neither is there any assurance that the water bottle is thoroughly sanitised before being re-used.
There is no government regulation as to the number of times the bottle can be
re-used before it needs to be discarded/recycled.
Some bottles are made from Poly Carbonate (PC) and some from PET.
And I am now aware that some water bottle producer recycled the PC bottle by melting down the old bottle and remoulding again.

Can you advise how many times can plastic water bottle be re-used before it
has to be discarded?
Is there any difference between water bottle made from PC or PET, which one
is better to store water for human consumption?

Thanks & regards,
Effi Jono

[Bader]

Hi Jonno (salamat pagi!)

I lived (worked) in Indonesia for two years and yes you are very right....there are mineral water bottles EVERWHERE!
From my own experience, i dont think there is any limit as to how many times the bottles can be recycled for as long as the quality of bottle is not effecting the quality of its contents (water) and that can only be checked in a laboratory. The is why good companies maintain reference samples to carry out test on aging bottles that have recycled a myriad times.

I did not come across any PC bottles however and i dont think it is 'feaisble' to pack mineral water in PC bottles due to its cost. PC is expensive than PET by 5-6 times!!! and any thing that is not adding value to the product....must be stopped

You asked what is the difference between PC and ABS bottle?
Not going into the technical side of it:

- PC is 5-6 times expensive than PET
- PC is much tougher than PET.
- Processing PC is difficult than processing PET

I have seen many Thermofored glasses in Indonesia (100-150-250 ml). Now these are nither PET nor PC. They are made of PP and are the cheapest of all materials.

Bader


Any process that does'nt add value to your product...stop it!

[effi jono]

Dear Bader,
Terima Kasih for the reply,

Currently most gallon size water bottle in Indonesia market is made from PC (or perhaps a mixture of PC and something else?). It is expensive and we, consumers have to pay for it, eg we order 6 gallons of water, we pay for the water and the 6 water bottles separately.
I am aware there are now a small number of PET water bottle suppliers, which is cheaper.
Unfortunately, large and established water suppliers are not too concerned about this difference in cost because the consumers bear the cost, not them. Only small water producers are starting to use PET bottles as they do not yet have the brand name and compete only on cost differential. Trade-off between large reputable suppliers with expensive water bottle vs. small unknown (quality ??) suppliers with cheaper water bottle.

Interestingly some friends from Taiwan (where water is stored in PET bottle) say that PET is safer as water storage than PC, as PC is more for industrial use whilst PET for consumers. Is this true?

regards,
Effi Jono