What Do The Numbers At The Bottom of Plastic Containers Mean?

Filling the water bottles out is considered to be the greatest achievement to please your parents in brown culture. We often reuse the Cola bottles. Some of us may muster some concerns and actually go to a grocery store to buy fridge dedicated bottles. But are these bottles safe? Have we ever bothered to know what the different kinds of bottles are? Which should be reused and which shouldn’t be. Beware! Asian “jugaadz” aren’t safe every time.
There are 7 + 1 types of plastics. May be some of the curious people among us have noticed the numbers in a recycling symbol. Have you ever wondered what they mean? They signify different kinds of plastic, contents that have been used in them and how much can you reuse them.

Number one is the clear type of plastic mostly used for cola bottles and it is NOT safe to reuse it again. The plastic material used in these bottles are porous in nature and thus can accumulate a lot of germs in them. So, people DO NOT put water in them again and again. Type 2 is opaque and is used for detergent bottles and is considered to be a little safe and has less leaking properties.
Type 3 contains PVC and this type of plastic is used in making of food wraps and cooking oil bottles. They should not be heated ever. The PVC plastic can interfere with your hormonal health and can thus make you infertile or even provoke cancer. Type 4 is made up of low density polythene and is considered to be relatively safe. These are used in bread bags, food wraps, sauce squeezing bottle, etc.

Type 5 are the plastic materials which are heat resistant and said to be microwave safe. But people none of the plastic is safe when heated because we heat it too much sometimes and it can mingle with the plastic chemically. Plastic 6 is very dangerous, all of the disposable bags. It is dangerous because it is highly reactive to heat and emits dangerous chemicals. Plastic 6 if not recycled cannot be decomposed, in other words its non-biodegradable.

Okay so when you hear type 7 this is what you should do: “Run”. Its literally every kind of plastic mixed together and made into a mould. Technological aesthetics, sports and dental equipment and worse, some water and baby bottles are also made out of it.

So, another type 7+1st is the one called BPF free. Which means that it is the angel with a halo type of material that is pure and safe to use. But modern studies have suggested that it also has a life in thousands and thus can be dangerous to health.
Ergo, every kind of plastic is dangerous for us and for the mother earth. Imagine the devil gale we are awakening by clustering the mountains of non-ending things. The only solution and need of time is to say a complete no to plastic, otherwise we may regret it very soon.