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I want the phrase "carbon footprint" to die a horrible death. Please. soon. Come on though, this isn't hacker news. It's a square bottle - eg a carton. Which d
by axod 17y ago
I want the phrase "carbon footprint" to die a horrible death. Please. soon.
Come on though, this isn't hacker news. It's a square bottle - eg a carton. Which doesn't make any sense for a bottle of drink. Uncomfortable to hold, it looks idiotic. It's a non starter.
Also by making the bottle square, you're actually using more bottle material than you need to - cylinder is the most efficient shape to hold contents. Way to waste plastic...
I would also guess that manufacturing a square bottle is far harder and takes more effort/power/"carbon" than manufacturing a round one.
- Pheter 17y agoI'm not entirely certain what manufacturing process is used to make Coke bottles but if they use blow moulding, which is very common, then it is simply a case of making a different shaped mould. I don't see why that would require any more effort, and it seems unlikely that it would require any more power/"carbon".
- axod 17y agoWhat about the rest of the process? Labeling machines, filling machines, packing machines etc etc. These are pretty much all used to round bottles.
- Pheter 17y agoThat hadn't occured to me. On a large scale operation like producing Coke wouldn't these costs be quickly diluted by the large volume of containers that they are producing? Or do Coca-Cola contract many smaller companies that would have to change equipment individualy?
- jrockway 17y agoFor once in my life, I agree with you 100%. "carbon footprint" my ass. Glass bottles had a lower carbon footprint because you could wash them out and they were as good as new. Plastic in a landfill is plastic in a landfill. Forever.
- gridspy 17y agoTo strengthen your argument, you need to provide a machine that will wash and refill a coke bottle. Otherwise you are simply sending some glass to the landfill (lazy customers) and some to recycling.
- axod 17y agoI'd bet people are far more likely to recycle glass, than plastic.
- ja2ke 17y agoThe very machine you mention can be found... In the past! Soft drinks, like milk and juice bottles, used to be reused and refilled. I guess it was cheaper to fire all deliverymen and not run refilling machines when bottles could be made out of thin, throwaway plastic instead. Most soft drink bottles still say "non-refillable" on them, even though no refilling services exist, even if you wanted to.
- GFischer 17y agoGlass Coke bottles are still sold in South America (in my country Uruguay for instance). Even more, most people agree that it is "tastier" (just because it keeps cold better I suspect, and I hope it's not because something from the plastic container seeps into it!)
- antipaganda 17y agoNo, it's tastier in third world countries because they use real sugar instead of HFCS: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/magazine/11fob-consumed-t.html http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/magazine/11fob-consumed-t....
- ryanwaggoner 17y agoNot just in developing nations...you can get glass bottles of Coke in the US made with real sugar as well.
- jonknee 17y agoFiji water does OK with a rectangular bottle. Wal-Mart / Costco do OK with a rectangular 1-gallon milk carton (which they implemented solely for cost). Johnnie Walker has been utilizing a rectangular shape for nearly two centuries, originally implemented for ease of shipping. This isn't a radical or new idea, but still a good one. Even better would be to use biodegradable plastics, but that's not an idea that saves money.
- holygoat 17y agoFiji, milk, and whisky are not pressurized like a carbonated soda.
- hristov 17y agoActually a sphere should be the most efficient shape. Scuttles off and starts designing a spherical coke bottle.
- joe_bleau 17y agoEver see the Coke Christmas ornament bottles? http://www.yumsugar.com/2009-Coca-Cola-Round-Holiday-Ornament-Bottles-6468406 http://www.yumsugar.com/2009-Coca-Cola-Round-Holiday-Ornamen...
- mikeyur 17y agoThey wouldn't fit in standard cup holders though. For some reason, I feel shipping a soccer ball sized bottle of coke would be less efficient than the current design
- Qz 17y agoA sphere is most efficient on a per bottle basis, but that doesn't necessarily hold up when shipping them in rectangular containers.
- dmlorenzetti 17y agoThe elephant in the room is that shipping bottles of carbonated corn syrup around the world will never be "eco-friendly" no matter how much effort invested in the packaging.
- cperciva 17y agoThere is no such elephant. The Coca-Cola Company ships bottles of concentrated syrup around the world, but dilutes, bottles, and carbonates it at hundreds of plants around the world. (Possibly even thousands, actually -- there are apparently 300 "bottling partners", and I imagine many of them have multiple plants.)
- dmlorenzetti 17y agoForgive me my choice of words. I erred by going for an image, rather than for strict accuracy. Look out your window. Do you see a bottling factory? Then that can of carbonated corn syrup got shipped to you, probably over some distance. That is not "green" by any stretch of the imagination. By the way, I'm not knocking people for enjoying carbonated beverages. They just shouldn't claim they're being "green" by e.g., recycling the container, or making the container in a slightly different fashion.
- cperciva 17y agothat can of carbonated corn syrup got shipped to you, probably over some distance True. Of course, the water which comes out of your tap travelled some distance, too. The water in the diet coke I drink travelled, from reservoir to bottling plant to distribution plant to store to me, a total distance of under 100 km. Compare that to someone drinking tap water in Phoenix, and tell me who has the greater environmental impact.