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And while it is possible to recycle glass, in practice it is tough. Glass is heavy and therefore costly to transport. It also generally has to be sorted by colo

And while it is possible to recycle glass, in practice it is tough. Glass is heavy and therefore costly to transport. It also generally has to be sorted by color before it is recycled (and this is a problem with U.S. multi stream recycling collection). https://cen.acs.org/materials/inorganic-chemistry/glass-recycling-US-broken/97/i6 https://cen.acs.org/materials/inorganic-chemistry/glass-recy...

lukifer 7y ago
The other thing I wonder about is all the extra crap on nearly all bottles: glue and stickers and wrappers and ink. I suspect some/most of what I put into recycling just ends up in a landfill anyway. And what kills me is, if our E2E supply chain was anything resembling sanity, there's no reason the identical bottle couldn't be shipped back to the manufacturer to be washed and reused directly! (...pandemics notwithstanding) Maybe it's unrealistic, but in light of the efficiency and innovation created by standard-sized shipping containers, I wonder if it would be worthwhile to try to push manufacturers to standardize on various glass bottle shapes and sizes, to make them easy to reuse directly across different products and locations.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- jbay808 7y ago
  I think package standardization would be a revolutionary benefit to humanity, beyond even what the shipping container has achieved. I remember visiting Japan and being blown away when I walked into a bookstore - almost every book was a standard size. This means bookshelves can be a standard size. This means people can fit books into their small homes efficiently. Boxes are designed to fit the books perfectly. Cloth book-covers fit library books perfectly. Coming back to North America, it felt that bookshelves were a war between publishers to produce the most awkwardly shaped book that would stick out from the shelf more than any others. In an age where Amazon will ship you a toothbrush in a 1' box stuffed with paper, where a lot of consumers don't even see the product on a shelf so the attractiveness of the box doesn't matter, think of the benefits that package standardization could have. Apparently the USSR would wash and reuse glass bottles, and the container shape would be the same whether it contained pickles or whatever. I've only heard this anecdotally though.
  - bluGill 7y ago
    How will they wash the bottles? A friend of mine used to work for coke (now retired), he always drank from cans or plastic bottles because he didn't think they washed glass good enough).
    - cycomanic 7y ago
      Well they can wash and desinfect medical equipment at hospitals (admittedly not everything) and restaurants wash glasses and cuttlery every day. Why should we not be able to wash bottles?
- justusw 7y ago
  The so called "Normbrunnnenflasche" was introduced in 1969 by German mineral water bottling companies to have exactly this: [1] * Standardized size (holds 0,7 l) * Can withstand pressure, therefore suitable for sparkling water * Can be used roughly 50 times: the bottle develops a matte ring through repeated handling indicating the approximate number of refills * Any nearby retailer can take it back, and * Any nearby bottling company can then use it for their own beverages The important takeaway here is that it's REUSE, not RECYCLE, that might have the potential to reduce plastic production. Legally, producers and retailers (!) have to clearly indicate which beverage containers are reusable (Mehrweg) and which ones are single-use (Einweg). [2] This is a great example of nudging people into environmentally positive behavior. Single-use deposits are higher than reusable deposits. [1]: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normbrunnenflasche https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normbrunnenflasche [2]: https://www.volle-pulle-umweltschutz.de/ https://www.volle-pulle-umweltschutz.de/ by the BMU
malandrew 7y ago
Foamglas is a great use for recycled glass https://www.buildinggreen.com/blog/foamglas---my-new-favorite-insulation-material https://www.buildinggreen.com/blog/foamglas---my-new-favorit...
tachyonbeam 7y ago
We could alleviate that problem by standardizing glass containers, eg: have one or two standard soft drink containers. Same for wine bottles, milk jugs. Glass containers don't need to be re-melted. They can be washed and reused in a plant.

lukifer 7y ago

The other thing I wonder about is all the extra crap on nearly all bottles: glue and stickers and wrappers and ink. I suspect some/most of what I put into recycling just ends up in a landfill anyway. And what kills me is, if our E2E supply chain was anything resembling sanity, there's no reason the identical bottle couldn't be shipped back to the manufacturer to be washed and reused directly! (...pandemics notwithstanding) Maybe it's unrealistic, but in light of the efficiency and innovation created by standard-sized shipping containers, I wonder if it would be worthwhile to try to push manufacturers to standardize on various glass bottle shapes and sizes, to make them easy to reuse directly across different products and locations.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
jbay808 7y ago
I think package standardization would be a revolutionary benefit to humanity, beyond even what the shipping container has achieved. I remember visiting Japan and being blown away when I walked into a bookstore - almost every book was a standard size. This means bookshelves can be a standard size. This means people can fit books into their small homes efficiently. Boxes are designed to fit the books perfectly. Cloth book-covers fit library books perfectly. Coming back to North America, it felt that bookshelves were a war between publishers to produce the most awkwardly shaped book that would stick out from the shelf more than any others. In an age where Amazon will ship you a toothbrush in a 1' box stuffed with paper, where a lot of consumers don't even see the product on a shelf so the attractiveness of the box doesn't matter, think of the benefits that package standardization could have. Apparently the USSR would wash and reuse glass bottles, and the container shape would be the same whether it contained pickles or whatever. I've only heard this anecdotally though.
- bluGill 7y ago
  How will they wash the bottles? A friend of mine used to work for coke (now retired), he always drank from cans or plastic bottles because he didn't think they washed glass good enough).
  - cycomanic 7y ago
    Well they can wash and desinfect medical equipment at hospitals (admittedly not everything) and restaurants wash glasses and cuttlery every day. Why should we not be able to wash bottles?
justusw 7y ago
The so called "Normbrunnnenflasche" was introduced in 1969 by German mineral water bottling companies to have exactly this: [1] * Standardized size (holds 0,7 l) * Can withstand pressure, therefore suitable for sparkling water * Can be used roughly 50 times: the bottle develops a matte ring through repeated handling indicating the approximate number of refills * Any nearby retailer can take it back, and * Any nearby bottling company can then use it for their own beverages The important takeaway here is that it's REUSE, not RECYCLE, that might have the potential to reduce plastic production. Legally, producers and retailers (!) have to clearly indicate which beverage containers are reusable (Mehrweg) and which ones are single-use (Einweg). [2] This is a great example of nudging people into environmentally positive behavior. Single-use deposits are higher than reusable deposits. [1]: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normbrunnenflasche https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normbrunnenflasche [2]: https://www.volle-pulle-umweltschutz.de/ https://www.volle-pulle-umweltschutz.de/ by the BMU

malandrew 7y ago

Foamglas is a great use for recycled glass https://www.buildinggreen.com/blog/foamglas---my-new-favorite-insulation-material https://www.buildinggreen.com/blog/foamglas---my-new-favorit...

tachyonbeam 7y ago

We could alleviate that problem by standardizing glass containers, eg: have one or two standard soft drink containers. Same for wine bottles, milk jugs. Glass containers don't need to be re-melted. They can be washed and reused in a plant.