Look at this way, if you put a plastic bottle in fire, it will totally melt and turn to liquid (sort of) thus structurally look totally different from the original bottle. When you put the hot water, you start this melting process, but the hot water cools down probably because of contact with air and the process is halted.

Like Shiro said, it must be the Highlands bottle uses a different type of plastic from the others, maybe one with a lower melting point.

On Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 9:23 AM, Shiro Njagi <sheeroh@gmail.com> wrote:
plastic melts in high temperatures.
I guess the Highlands bottle uses a type of plastic that is less
resistant to heat than the other bottles.
that's my take.

On 6/5/09, Tech List Kenya <techlistkenya@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have a question:
> The other day I put hot - as in boiling - water into a plastic bottle
> and it shrunk to almost half the size.
> This happens especially with Highlands juice bottles, av tested with
> Quencher and empty Coke 2ltr bottle but they are not affected much.
> I mean a 1ltr bottle literally shrunk to 500ml. Where did the rest of
> the bottle go?
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