Storing 19 litre water bottles at home or in the office, and what to do with the empties

A 19 litre bottle arrives clean and sealed. From the moment it crosses your doorstep, what happens to it is up to you. A bottle left on a sunny terrace, kept next to a can of paint or handled with dusty hands can lose in a week what the plant spent hours getting right. The habits that prevent this are small, and they work the same in a flat in Gulberg and a ground-floor office in Johar Town. Here they are, along with what to do with the empties.

Where to keep full bottles

Choose a place with these four things in common: it is indoors, it is cool, it is clean and it is out of the way of foot traffic.

• Out of direct sunlight. Sun warms the water and the plastic, and warm water in a clear bottle is where algae and a stale taste start. This matters most from May to September, when a bottle on a balcony can become warm to the touch.
• Away from heat sources: the kitchen range, a geyser room, the back of a refrigerator or a generator.
• Away from paint, petrol, pesticide, phenyl and other strong chemicals. Plastic takes up odours, and a bottle kept in a store next to them can taste of it.
• On a flat, dry, clean floor. A cupboard under the stairs is fine. A damp corner of a bathroom is not.

Lifting and stacking safely

Water weighs about a kilogram a litre, so a full bottle holds around 19 kilograms of water before you count the bottle itself. That is enough to hurt a back, to slip from wet hands, or to crack a floor tile if it is dropped.

• Bend your knees, keep the bottle close to your body and lift with your legs, not your back.
• Do not carry one up a staircase alone if you are not used to it. Ask another person to help.
• Keep full bottles standing upright. Do not stack them more than one high, and never lean them against each other on a slope.
• Keep a clear path to the dispenser. A bottle in a corridor gets knocked.
• Keep them out of reach of small children, who can pull a bottle over onto themselves.

Changing a bottle on the dispenser

This is the one moment when a clean bottle can pick up something from your hands, the cloth or the dispenser.

• Wash your hands first.
• Check the seal on the cap. If it is broken, loose or missing, do not use the bottle. Keep it aside and tell your supplier.
• Remove the seal and cap, and wipe the neck of the bottle with a clean cloth.
• Lift it onto the dispenser in one smooth movement, so that the neck sits in the opening without touching the surrounding surfaces.
• Wipe the dispenser's drip tray and tap while the bottle is off and the dispenser is easy to reach.

What to do with the empty bottles

The 19 litre bottle is a refillable bottle: the supplier collects the empty, washes and sanitises it and fills it again, which is the reason it is cheaper per litre than small single-use bottles. How you handle the empty affects the next customer, because it is the same bottle.

• Put the cap back on straight away. Dust, insects and moisture stay out until the bottle is washed.
• Keep empties together in one place, by the door or in the lobby, where the rider can find them. Do not leave them outside overnight where anyone might take them or use them for something else.
• Do not refill the empty yourself, and do not keep anything else in it, such as oil, petrol, milk, juice or cleaning liquid. A bottle that has held something other than water should not go back into circulation.
• Do not cut, drill, paint or cook with it. A scratched or cut bottle cannot be cleaned properly.
• Do not hold on to empties for months. A bottle in your store is a bottle your supplier cannot use.

How the bottle exchange works with Aabdar

When your delivery arrives, our rider collects the empties you have ready at the same visit, so bottles do not pile up. Ask us about the bottle terms for your plan before your first delivery. If you are going away, tell us before your delivery day so we can arrange a different date, and if you ever find a bottle with a broken seal, refuse it and let us know.

For offices: a few more habits

• Name one person who changes the bottles, so it does not turn into everyone's job and nobody's.
• Choose a fixed spot for empties and put it where the rider can reach it without walking through the working floor.
• Keep one full bottle in reserve. A bottle that runs out at four in the afternoon on a Thursday is how people end up buying small bottles from the nearest shop.
• Look at the dispenser, not just the bottle, when the water tastes off. Clean the drip tray and the taps first.

The bottom line

Keep full bottles cool, upright and away from chemicals. Wipe the neck every time. Put the cap back on the empty and hand it back promptly, so the next bottle that reaches you is as clean as the last one. These habits cost nothing and protect everything you pay for.

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