Bottled Water Do you drink water from plastic bottles? If you do, you might want to think about changing your habit because plastic water bottles hurt both people and the environment. First of all, plastic bottles contain two harmful chemicals, BPA and phthalates. Both types of chemicals can cause serious health problems in both adults and children. Second, plastic bottles hurt the environment. The bottles are made from petroleum, and transporting them requires an enormous amount of polluting fossil fuels. In the 1970s, the United States-was the world's biggest exporter of fossil fuels. Also, most plastic bottles are not recycled. They in our landfills, where they can take many decades to break down.