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The Cleanliness of Reusable Water Bottles: How Contamination Levels are Affected by Bottle Usage and Cleaning Behaviors of Bottle Owners
Abstract
Reusable water bottles are growing in popularity, but consumers regularly refill bottles without a corresponding effort at cleaning them. If the difficulties associated with various bottle designs and materials are added in, it is clear that improperly cleaned water bottles may present a potential contamination risk and thus be a risk for foodborne illness. The purpose of this study was to measure contamination levels of water bottles that are in use and to investigate bottle usage and cleaning behaviors by collecting survey data from the bottle owners. Total organic materials on the exterior surface and coliform and heterotrophic bacteria on the interior surface were enumerated, using ATP bioluminescence and the agar plate count method, respectively. The HPC and coliform results revealed a marked microbial contamination level among reusable water bottles that are in use, and the ATP levels suggest that the exterior bottle surfaces may serve as fomites that facilitate the transmission of infectious organisms. The contamination level can be affected by factors such as bottle material, refill frequency, beverage type, and cleaning behavior.
... The biological risk associated with the use/reuse of water bottles has been evaluated by recent studies [11][12][13][14], demonstrating high bacterial and fungal growth when cleaning and maintaining practices are not correctly adopted. To date, however, the same attention has not been given to the chemical risk related to the possible release of elements and/or compounds to the water from the internal surface of the bottles. ...
Reusable water bottles are growing in popularity; thus, possible chemical release from the internal surface into water should be carefully considered to control related health risks. We experimentally evaluated the release into deionized water of 40 elements, six phthalates, and bisphenol-A for 20 different reusable bottles by simulating the use in real world scenario. The 20 bottles, identified as those most purchased in Italy, were made of various materials (stainless steel, aluminum, plastic, and silicone). The experiment was carried out for four consecutive weeks in duplicate for each type of bottle. Our results showed the release, to various extents, of inorganic elements from all 20 bottles, while the release of phthalates and bisphenol-A was never found. The elements most frequently released were Al, Sr, Mo, and Cr, while the highest concentrations were for Ca, K, Mg, and Na; the release of toxic elements (such as Pb, Cd, Ni, Sb) also occurred. The comparison of our results with regulatory limits on drinking water quality revealed no exceeding values except for Al.
... A lack of options to easily clean reusable bottles was another important barrier cited by students as a reason for why they do not more regularly use a reusable water bottle. Bottles that are not cleaned regularly and thoroughly are problematic, as studies have shown that they can harbor potentially harmful microbial loads [52,53]. Even general awareness of this issue through personal experience with bottles that have a bad smell or look unclean is likely an important factor in driving water bottle behavior among college students without convenient and effective cleaning options. ...
Plastic waste represents one of the largest environmental problems of the modern era and disposable water bottles comprise a substantial portion of that waste in the U.S. Colleges are in a unique position to create systems that foster sustainable behaviors among their constituents. Since 2015, Allegheny College has installed water refill stations, and initiated a free water bottle program and an awareness campaign to reduce single-use bottles on the college’s campus. Two surveys were distributed to the student body between 2018 and 2019 to assess the efficacy of those initiatives and learn about any barriers. Bottled water use has reduced significantly since 2014, with the majority of students stating that they most commonly drink water from refill stations while on campus. Demographic factors like income, sex, or place of origin were not related to the amount of bottled water consumption or type of water preference among students. The primary barrier to students eliminating disposable water bottle use was found to be a lack of water refill stations in dormitories. Research aimed at changing behaviors to benefit the environment should consider the barrier of convenience. This research provides a valuable lesson that can extend beyond college campuses and into public settings.
... At the end of Day 2 the contamination is anyway higher than in the case of PET or PLA bottles, but lower than in the previous case. Various previous studies (Oliphant et al., 2002;da Silva et al., 2008;Sun et al., 2017;Mills et al., 2018) have shown that refillable drinking water was less safe or could be contaminated with bacteria that could harm human health. Reusable drinking water bottles are consistently humid and are easily contaminated via the user's hands and mouth, which are not devoid of microorganisms, especially the normal microbial flora of the skin and mouth. ...
Nowadays, the most important tool to evaluate the environmental impact of both petro-plastics and bioplastics is the life cycle analysis (LCA). LCA determines the overall impact on the environment by defining, calculation and analyzing all the input and output directly related to production, utilization, and disposal of a product or a process. In this work, a LCA (cradle to grave) of bottles for drinking water was developed on three scenarios: polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, as conventional packaging material for outdoor drinking water, polylactic acid (PLA) bottles, as alternative and innovative biodegradable packaging and aluminum bottle, as reusable and almost infinitely refilling packaging. As a result of LCA, ten impacts categories have been accounted for, among which the global warming potential (GWP, measured as kgCO2 eq), the eutrophication potential (EP, measured as kgPO4 eq.), human and eco-toxicity (HTP and ETP, measured as kg 1,4-DB eq.). The average drinking water consumption in Italy has been estimated in 1.5 liters per day, corresponding to three 500 ml-plastic bottles and 1 refillable aluminum bottle. LCA has been firstly applied to a single bottle production and use, then to the daily and annual bottles consumption. PET bottles production and use assure the lower environmental impacts compared to PLA bottles, burdened by agricultural phase for corn cultivation, and to aluminum bottles, when the every-day washing with hot water or water and soap is comprehended. Moreover, including the end-of-life options into the analysis, PET recycling permits to reduce up to about 30% the GWP, whereas PLA composting does not lead to any GWP savings. In this study, aluminum bottle has been considered reusable for 2.5 years. The microbiological quality of water in one-way PET and PLA bottles has been compared with the refillable bottle rinsing with hot water and soap and only hot water, highlighting that the level of contamination is alarmingly increased in the latter case.
... Yet, hygiene was not identified as an important precautionary measure of water bottle usage by any teacher. Reusable water bottles need to be regularly cleaned and disinfected to prevent water stagnation and the multiplication of water borne pathogens [32]. It is proposed that alongside the encouragement of greater water intake in schools that more time within the curriculum be dedicated to educate primary phased teachers and their students on the importance of water bottle hygiene. ...
No public health data exists on elementary teachers’ perceptions of both their own fluid intake and of their elementary school aged children’s fluid intake. A total of 271 (20 males, 251 females) teachers in developed areas of Australia, Belgium, England, Ireland, United Arab Emirates, and the United States of America completed an online questionnaire (Feb–Mar 2019) on: (i) their fluid intake, (ii) their perception and understanding of children’s fluid intake and (iii) barriers in the school day that they felt prevented school children consuming fluids. Overall, the data indicated that teachers consume considerably lower amounts than recommended themselves, but have a good awareness of children’s fluid intake and estimate children drink approximately half (1 litre (34% n = 93)) of what is recommended per day. The results were also similar to those reported by children previously. Yet, the data highlighted a lack of active encouragement of drinking water throughout the school day by teachers, with only 11% (n = 29) suggesting they actively encourage children to drink and 45% (n = 123) reporting no active encouragement at all. It is recommended as a public health measure that all school children consume an extra cup of water during lunch times in those schools where water intake was recognized as sub optimal. Furthermore, depending on weather conditions, a cup of water before, during and after Physical Education lessons should be encouraged by teachers. Water coolers or bottles may be used as a supplementary resource, provided that hygiene is maintained. From an educational perspective, more professional development needs to be provided to teachers on the importance of regular water consumption, and more time dedicated across the elementary curriculum to educational understanding of fluid consumption.
... Reusable water bottles are refilled several times a day, and users occasionally tend to empty their water bottle before refilling it [10]. The water consumption of a user could be accurately tracked by distinguishing between the events of drinking and sifting water from the bottle. ...
... At the end of Day 2 the contamination is anyway higher than in the case of PET or PLA bottles, but lower than in the previous case. Various previous studies (Oliphant et al., 2002;da Silva et al., 2008;Sun et al., 2017;Mills et al., 2018) have shown that refillable drinking water was less safe or could be contaminated with bacteria that could harm human health. Reusable drinking water bottles are consistently humid and are easily contaminated via the user's hands and mouth, which are not devoid of microorganisms, especially the normal microbial flora of the skin and mouth. ...
It is well-known that in beet sugar technology the purification of raw juice is achieved using milk of lime produced from calcium carbonate. For several years now, researchers have been trying to find alternative processes to eliminate the use of milk of lime by utilizing new technologies based on microfiltration, chromatographic separation and cooling crystallization. With the aim of giving the industry all the information necessary to make a choice, a direct comparison between the cooling crystallization of traditional thick juice and of microfiltered and softened raw juice produced in the same West European sugar factory was made. A four-stage crystallization scheme was used. Both the quality of sugar and the total crystallization yield through proper mass balances was accounted for. Whereas in case of conventional syrup one EU-No. 1 and one EU-No. 2 quality sugars were obtained, only one EU-No. 2 quality sugar was obtained for microfiltered raw juice. A particular aspect taken into consideration was the morphology of the crystals obtained from these two types of juices which, of course, was related to the different non-sucrose compounds contained in them. For the cooling crystallization tests, a small pilot plant was utilized.
... At the end of Day 2 the contamination is anyway higher than in the case of PET or PLA bottles, but lower than in the previous case. Various previous studies (Oliphant et al., 2002;da Silva et al., 2008;Sun et al., 2017;Mills et al., 2018) have shown that refillable drinking water was less safe or could be contaminated with bacteria that could harm human health. Reusable drinking water bottles are consistently humid and are easily contaminated via the user's hands and mouth, which are not devoid of microorganisms, especially the normal microbial flora of the skin and mouth. ...
The problems related to the traditional technology of sugar-beet processing have became so important that the beet sector
in Europe, and particularly in Italy, has been shocked. If we want to produce sugar beet in the future it is necessary to
decrease the production costs through a simplification of the technology, a decreasing of the problems related to the energy
and water consumptions, the elimination of the solid, liquid and gaseous wastes. We tried in the past to give our contribution
for solving these problems but we have found difficulties in convincing the beet sugar world to drastically modify the traditional
technology. The problems are so important that an European Project (TOSSIE—TOward Sustainable Sugar Industry in Europe) has
the main object of disseminating the results of the research obtained in the last decades. We proposed different solutions
including the elimination of calco-carbonic purification process, the utilization of membrane technology and suggesting different
processing schemes. Now we would like to propose another possible solution with the elimination of the diffusion process and
a balanced production, beside the crystallized sugar, of biofuels. Preliminary results obtained in laboratory and in a pilot
plant will be presented and discussed.
Access to safe drinking water is vital for human development; however, challenges arising from industrialization, agriculture, and population growth threaten its availability. The packaged drinking water industry, a crucial alternative, encounters difficulties in meeting quality, operational, and regulatory requirements. Refillable polyethylene terephthalate (PET) jars, undergoing multiple cycles of refilling, pose higher risks of contamination, requiring more attention. This study advocates the use of a proactive method, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), to anticipate and prevent problems in the processing and refilling of PET water jars before they occur, promoting a proactive approach to quality and risk management. Findings reveal inadequate cleaning of PET water jars with the highest Risk Priority Number (RPN) of 378, followed by aging of UV lamp, scaling on the UV lamp shield impacting the disinfection of product water and biological contamination due to unsanitary practices during manual filling of jars, each with RPNs of 315, 324, and 270. Addressing these top contributors promises substantial improvements in water quality. Implementing corrective actions reduced RPNs to 81, 54, 36, & 36, respectively. This systematic application of FMEA yielded significant improvements in quality, safety, and reliability within the packaged drinking water industry. Proactive strategies developed through FMEA hold promise beyond the packaged drinking water industry, improving water quality management.
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