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I wouldn't be surprised if shipping plastic containers and then incinerating them consumes less petroleum and releases less carbon than shipping glass container
by mumblemumble 7y ago
I wouldn't be surprised if shipping plastic containers and then incinerating them consumes less petroleum and releases less carbon than shipping glass containers twice.
Perhaps with standardized containers and regional distribution centers? Sort of like the old-school beverage bottling plants, but for all variety of consumer products, and not tied to just one brand or class of product. I've no idea how you'd get such a thing bootstrapped, though.
- pessimizer 7y agoZero-waste stores seem to be a recent development in Europe, I remember watching a DW segment on them: https://wastelandrebel.com/en/the-first-zero-waste-bulk-store-in-germany-unverpackt-kiel/ https://wastelandrebel.com/en/the-first-zero-waste-bulk-stor... https://www.bepakt.com/ https://www.bepakt.com/
- mumblemumble 7y agoYeah, happy that even some major supermarkets in the US are even beginning to introduce bulk foods. But I just don't see how waste reduction can be neatly reconciled with e-commerce. The typical situation seems to be that things are packed in retail-style packaging, then plastic wrapped, then placed in a plastic padded mailing envelope or placed in a cardboard box along with some plastic air pillows, and then shipped 2day, which, if it's not coming from Amazon, likely means jet fuel is being burned. I'll say that for Amazon, they at least did an impressive job reducing the fuel waste inherent in ecommerce. It's too bad they're so happy to let the counterfeiters ruin it for us.