I think what BK was implying was that if you used the search function you would have found 10,000 threads on the topic already...Not that you can't use them...
Because as long as the plastic code on the bottom is a 1 or a 2 you can...and many including myself do...
Most of the arguments against were made moot the minute that many water bottle manufacturers began last year to replace their <7> bottles with others, because of the bisophenol scare...Especially since MANY OF THE BOTTLED WATER SELLERS ARE SUBCONTRACTING WITH BETTER BOTTLE and other similar manufacturers to make the bottles for them.
Some of the purified water dealers now even say they use the better bottle, or even use the BB symbol on their labels, and many more companies are making bottle similar to the BB, that are just as acceptable for brewing.
In fact someone here recently bought a "better bottle" and it has a "use for water only" etching on the bottom of the bottle...yet it was the same as the other better bottle he bought...so obviously one of the water bottle better bottles got switched on the line.
Not to mention the fact that the whole "oxygen permeability" argument was probably created by the glass bottle/carboy industry when plastics were first introduced in the 60's anyway....Whether or not it was true to begin with...That was then, and things have changed, especially in the last 2-3 years (even commercial macro beers are appearing on the market in plastic bottles...you think a BMC company would risk multimillions of dollars on plastic if it would ruin their beer.)
And besides, if your beer/wine/mead is fermenting it's got a blanket of co2 wrapped around it, it is going to prevent oxygen from getting in any way....
People who dismiss plastics nowadays out of hand, need to read some stuff written about water bottles in the last couple of years...like I said, times have changed.
And besides with glass carboys tripeling in price...using water bottles is a viable alternative.