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The problem with this solution is that washing and sterilizing makes a heavy demand on the country’s own water sources, which may already be facing depletion. I
by Mediterraneo10 7y ago
The problem with this solution is that washing and sterilizing makes a heavy demand on the country’s own water sources, which may already be facing depletion. It works well in, say, Northern Europe which is very wet, but in Peru or India such a system is not so environmentally friendly. There, it may be better to use plastic containers that are recycled at a facility elsewhere.
- 0_____0 7y agoHow much water is used to clean/sterilize a bottle? Compared to resources consumed making the container from scratch or attempting to crush/reprocess it? FWIW India already has a robust bottle return and reuse system.
- Mediterraneo10 7y ago> Compared to resources consumed making the container from scratch or attempting to crush/reprocess it? Empty containers can be loaded onto container ships, where they can be recycled elsewhere, and new containers delivered the same way. While that may still not be environmentally optimal on a world scale, at least it would consume no extra water in regions that are arid or facing groundwater depletion. > FWIW India already has a robust bottle return and reuse system. The soft-drink industry in India has already been castigated for depletion of groundwater, so again, washing and sterilizing all these bottles only compounds the damage.
- PinkMilkshake 7y agoI feel like we are stuck in a loop. Perhaps we need question whether or not it still makes sense to transport food and drink in small, individual containers. One solution might be to transport in bulk. You could take your own bottles to the supermarket that are whatever shape and material you desire and fill them up.
- Mediterraneo10 7y agoHow do you preserve the carbonation of soft drinks, then? In order for drinks to stay fizzy, the container has to be filled under pressure. Even if you offer customers some fancy machine that can fill their bottles under pressure, you still risk issues with customers bringing in old, flimsy containers that cannot withstand those pressures.
- PinkMilkshake 7y agoI'm not sure what the solution to that would be. Maybe sodastreams will become popular again.
- 0_____0 7y agoSame kind of reusable bottle you'd buy kombucha in. Flip top, gasket seal.
- grecy 7y agoPeru already re-uses glass bottles.. they were doing it in 2010 when I spent 2 months there. It's shocking you'd propose single use plastic bottles to be recycled over glass bottles that can be re-used hundreds (thousands?) of times. I'm sure they can capture and clean the water and re-use that too, it doesn't just have to go down the drain. I just can't help feeling that with everything there are nine million reasons not to do something, so we end up doing nothing. Analysis Paralysis.
- pmlnr 7y agoThere used to be hard plastic, reusable bottles.
- Symbiote 7y agoYou do realise they wash new bottles as one of the final steps in making them? I can't find figures comparing the water used in production vs reuse.