Oops! That was a mistake!

 Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone? - James Thurber

A short series (hopefully) of intermittent mistakes I should not have made if I'd thought it through properly. Back in 2023, we journeyed on the Vale of Rheidol steam train in Mid-Wales. Part of the ticket price included a voucher (maybe £5 but I'm guessing) to spend in the gift shop. I bought a water bottle and it has seen a lot of use over the past two years or so.

Photo 1: Water Bottle after Cleaning in the Dishwasher

However, it was looking a little grubby and I thought it could do with a thorough cleaning and disinfection. The dishwasher was nearly full so, without giving enough serious thought as to the sort of plastic the bottle was made of, I filled up the last space with the bottle and cap. I might have still gotten away with it if I hadn't had another brainstorm and set the wash temperature to 70 ℃. Normally, all washes are done on the Eco setting (50 ℃) but I wanted to give the bottle a good disinfection as well as a clean.

The end result can be seen in Photo 1. The cap and drinking tube remained largely intact whereas the bottle itself deformed and shrunk. I don't have any of the original packaging so cannot be sure which plastics were used in its construction. However, based on the thermal behaviour of the bottle and cap, I would guess the bottle itself is polyethylene terephthalate (PET) whereas the cap/straw is polypropylene and/or polyethylene.

I have a new bottle now and will be sterilizing it with a solution of Milton in future!