7 ms·

I can think of one - you do not know the heat/impact stress it has received when out of your custody, and don't want to be responsible for its unexpected shatte

I can think of one - you do not know the heat/impact stress it has received when out of your custody, and don't want to be responsible for its unexpected shattering while your client is using it. Reforging adds some guarantees.

ordiel 5y ago
Of course you dont want that... In the US, where they will sue you for looking wrong at people or they will rally up a crowd in protest... In the rest of the world where people are normal that is not a problem. Specially considetong that if the glass is already fragile it will either crack during cleaning or while being transported. If the bottle can handle being clinking on the bands while being filled up, I am sure it can stand being on the fragile hands of some folks
- ARandomerDude 5y ago
  > In the rest of the world where people are normal that is not a problem. That seems overly broad. The rest of the world includes some pretty nasty places.
- _Microft 5y ago
  This is not a nice comment and a rather reliable way to either get your comments downvoted, flagged or to get your account banned eventually. There are some guidelines for commenting linked in the footer of the page. For your convenience: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html#comments https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html#comments
  - chana_masala 5y ago
    Could you specifically call out what is wrong? I fail to see it other than you being offended by the commenter's view
    - _Microft 5y ago
      Generalizing to all US americans and implying that they are not 'normal' compared to the rest of the world is certainly not nice, is it? And I say that as someone who isn't even directly addressed by that statement.
      - coryrc 5y ago
        In the US, truth is a defense for libel. It would be correct to generalize North Koreans aren't normal due to shared trauma. Living in the US but having traveled overseas, the US seems to have its own traumas.
        spiderice 5y ago
        This isn't a court of law. And legal definitions aren't super relevant in day to day conversation. You could say any country isn't "normal" compared to the rest of the world, and then find some "true" way of defending it. That doesn't make it nice though.
        coryrc 5y ago
        Tone policing is used to reinforce the status quo. It's not nice to talk about the crimes someone is abetting; how many dead in Iraq due to the unnecessary invasion? The 40,000 US citizens who die every year from automobiles? The hundred thousand innocents dead because some people won't wear masks? It's certainly reasonable to suppose people of the unchallenged world superpower 1992-2019 are not normal.
        spiderice 5y ago
        You legitimately just proved my point. As I said, you can say any country is not normal and be correct, because every country is unique. Just reread my previous comment. Your response makes no sense in relation to it
      - ordiel 5y ago
jagger27 5y ago
In Ontario we seem to manage this fairly well. https://www.thestar.com/life/food_wine/2013/06/28/the_average_beer_bottle_is_refilled_15_times_in_its_environmentallyfriendly_life_cycle.html https://www.thestar.com/life/food_wine/2013/06/28/the_averag...
- klyrs 5y ago
  To answer GP's concern, they're x-rayed in reprocessing, which would detect unsound bottles.
- Maximus9000 5y ago
  It's too bad glass beer bottles seem to be going out of fashion these days in Ontario. Instead, people seem to be moving to aluminum cans. I miss the old days when you look at the bottom of a beer bottle and see a ring of wear because that glass had been recycled dozens of times (just washed and reused). You can see the ring of wear in this old bottle: https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jqHUfssta_Y/Tbt_aoiPgjI/AAAAAAAABg4/LXaPmpiqqwA/s1600/IMG_6613.jpg https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jqHUfssta_Y/Tbt_aoiPgjI/AAAAAAAAB...
  - mdtusz 5y ago
    This is still visible on a fair bit of beer - Sleemans sticks out in memory the most as always having wear rings on their clear bottles.
VBprogrammer 5y ago
Milk bottles Of my youth and glass bottles of Scotland's famous Irn Bru seemed to survive without causing death and injury to everyone coming close to one. I think you are being overly paranoid.
- asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
  I mean, that you heard of? I'm not sure it's possible to know with certainty what the drawbacks of mass glass reuse are without trying it. Probably there won't be a major issue but these liability questions should probably be ironed out. The bigger question to be is the relative current carbon intensity of reuse vs. disposable containers. Sure in a future where energy is generated without involving carbon, it may make sense to recycle glass more than we do today. But . . . that's the future state, not the state today.
  - _Microft 5y ago
    The article says that in Europe over 50% of the mass of new glass is actually recycled glass already. For bottles, I think, the system we have in Germany proves that it can be done. The bottle type that I mentioned in another comment here already is being used for 50 years now and about 5 billion of these bottles were produced so far. I guess we have seen all of the problems already that could possibly arise from that.
    - asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
      Oh, I know that glass can be recycled. That is not a question to me. What I'm less sure about is whether it can reliably be recycled without being reforged. I'm also not sure whether glass recycling is much better on a net carbon front than manufacturing. I'm sure it saves the cost of silica mining, but then there is the cost of shipping the returns and getting rid of impurities . . . it would be an interesting thing to know.
  - vidarh 5y ago
    Norway had reuse of glass bottles for decades. The pressure to switch to plastic came entirely from the drinks manufacturers over cost. Safety was never an issue.

ordiel 5y ago

Of course you dont want that... In the US, where they will sue you for looking wrong at people or they will rally up a crowd in protest... In the rest of the world where people are normal that is not a problem. Specially considetong that if the glass is already fragile it will either crack during cleaning or while being transported. If the bottle can handle being clinking on the bands while being filled up, I am sure it can stand being on the fragile hands of some folks

ARandomerDude 5y ago
> In the rest of the world where people are normal that is not a problem. That seems overly broad. The rest of the world includes some pretty nasty places.
_Microft 5y ago
This is not a nice comment and a rather reliable way to either get your comments downvoted, flagged or to get your account banned eventually. There are some guidelines for commenting linked in the footer of the page. For your convenience: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html#comments https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html#comments
- chana_masala 5y ago
  Could you specifically call out what is wrong? I fail to see it other than you being offended by the commenter's view
  - _Microft 5y ago
    Generalizing to all US americans and implying that they are not 'normal' compared to the rest of the world is certainly not nice, is it? And I say that as someone who isn't even directly addressed by that statement.
    - coryrc 5y ago
      In the US, truth is a defense for libel. It would be correct to generalize North Koreans aren't normal due to shared trauma. Living in the US but having traveled overseas, the US seems to have its own traumas.
      - spiderice 5y ago
        This isn't a court of law. And legal definitions aren't super relevant in day to day conversation. You could say any country isn't "normal" compared to the rest of the world, and then find some "true" way of defending it. That doesn't make it nice though.
        coryrc 5y ago
        Tone policing is used to reinforce the status quo. It's not nice to talk about the crimes someone is abetting; how many dead in Iraq due to the unnecessary invasion? The 40,000 US citizens who die every year from automobiles? The hundred thousand innocents dead because some people won't wear masks? It's certainly reasonable to suppose people of the unchallenged world superpower 1992-2019 are not normal.
        spiderice 5y ago
        You legitimately just proved my point. As I said, you can say any country is not normal and be correct, because every country is unique. Just reread my previous comment. Your response makes no sense in relation to it
    - ordiel 5y ago

jagger27 5y ago

In Ontario we seem to manage this fairly well. https://www.thestar.com/life/food_wine/2013/06/28/the_average_beer_bottle_is_refilled_15_times_in_its_environmentallyfriendly_life_cycle.html https://www.thestar.com/life/food_wine/2013/06/28/the_averag...

klyrs 5y ago
To answer GP's concern, they're x-rayed in reprocessing, which would detect unsound bottles.
Maximus9000 5y ago
It's too bad glass beer bottles seem to be going out of fashion these days in Ontario. Instead, people seem to be moving to aluminum cans. I miss the old days when you look at the bottom of a beer bottle and see a ring of wear because that glass had been recycled dozens of times (just washed and reused). You can see the ring of wear in this old bottle: https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jqHUfssta_Y/Tbt_aoiPgjI/AAAAAAAABg4/LXaPmpiqqwA/s1600/IMG_6613.jpg https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jqHUfssta_Y/Tbt_aoiPgjI/AAAAAAAAB...
- mdtusz 5y ago
  This is still visible on a fair bit of beer - Sleemans sticks out in memory the most as always having wear rings on their clear bottles.

VBprogrammer 5y ago

Milk bottles Of my youth and glass bottles of Scotland's famous Irn Bru seemed to survive without causing death and injury to everyone coming close to one. I think you are being overly paranoid.

asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
I mean, that you heard of? I'm not sure it's possible to know with certainty what the drawbacks of mass glass reuse are without trying it. Probably there won't be a major issue but these liability questions should probably be ironed out. The bigger question to be is the relative current carbon intensity of reuse vs. disposable containers. Sure in a future where energy is generated without involving carbon, it may make sense to recycle glass more than we do today. But . . . that's the future state, not the state today.
- _Microft 5y ago
  The article says that in Europe over 50% of the mass of new glass is actually recycled glass already. For bottles, I think, the system we have in Germany proves that it can be done. The bottle type that I mentioned in another comment here already is being used for 50 years now and about 5 billion of these bottles were produced so far. I guess we have seen all of the problems already that could possibly arise from that.
  - asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
    Oh, I know that glass can be recycled. That is not a question to me. What I'm less sure about is whether it can reliably be recycled without being reforged. I'm also not sure whether glass recycling is much better on a net carbon front than manufacturing. I'm sure it saves the cost of silica mining, but then there is the cost of shipping the returns and getting rid of impurities . . . it would be an interesting thing to know.
- vidarh 5y ago
  Norway had reuse of glass bottles for decades. The pressure to switch to plastic came entirely from the drinks manufacturers over cost. Safety was never an issue.