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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

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.
- asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
  Cost is often a proxy for energy expenditure, though. That's what I'm getting at. It is not obvious to me that reusing a glass bottle will necessarily decrease net energy expenditure.
  - vidarh 5y ago
    That may be true, which is the reason I specifically only addressed the question of safety, and the fact we have extensive experience with it in real life conditions.
  - bbbobbb 5y ago
    It could also be that it is a proxy for energy expenditure by the manufacturers though. They have to collect and clean the bottles. Single use plastic get thrown away with the costs being externalised to everybody else.
    - asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
      Possibly . . . it would be interesting to have more data on this. Intuitively it seems like reconditioning a glass bottle would cost not insignificant energy and labor, compared to landfilling it. But I would be happy to know.

_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.

asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
Cost is often a proxy for energy expenditure, though. That's what I'm getting at. It is not obvious to me that reusing a glass bottle will necessarily decrease net energy expenditure.
- vidarh 5y ago
  That may be true, which is the reason I specifically only addressed the question of safety, and the fact we have extensive experience with it in real life conditions.
- bbbobbb 5y ago
  It could also be that it is a proxy for energy expenditure by the manufacturers though. They have to collect and clean the bottles. Single use plastic get thrown away with the costs being externalised to everybody else.
  - asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
    Possibly . . . it would be interesting to have more data on this. Intuitively it seems like reconditioning a glass bottle would cost not insignificant energy and labor, compared to landfilling it. But I would be happy to know.