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Can't help but wonder... You're supposed to reduce, reuse, recycle, in that order. Could we standardize a few glass container shapes, and provide easy ways to r

Can't help but wonder... You're supposed to reduce, reuse, recycle, in that order. Could we standardize a few glass container shapes, and provide easy ways to return them for re-use, rather than spending the energy breaking them down and melting them back into the same shapes again? I would be fine with all my bottled drinks coming in just a few shapes.

smallnamespace 5y ago
Does the melting process need to run nonstop? If not, you can use cheap off-peak renewables for it too.
- kortex 5y ago
  Currently yes. There's a lot of heat capacity to the furnaces so a cold start requires a lot of heat to get to nominal. That's not to say one couldn't be designed in such a way that it can be set to idle without losing too much heat. It's probably much easier to do that if it's electric vs nat gas.
hervature 5y ago
I can't tell if this is satire. We used to do exactly this with milk bottles. From [1]: "In 1975, 94% of milk in the UK was in glass bottles, but as of 2012 this number was down to 4%." The reality is that plastic is so much cheaper that people balk at the cost of recycling exactly like the price of humanely treated chicken eggs even if they want to do the right thing. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_milk_bottle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_milk_bottle
- blitzar 5y ago
  Proud to say that my milk is in the 4%. Interesting how sometimes progress is a step in the wrong direction, the milk man even had an electric car way back in the day! > balk at the cost of recycling exactly like the price of humanely treated chicken eggs even if they want to do the right thing That is right before they balk at paying the farmer more than 25p a litre to produce the milk they are going to drink.
qw 5y ago
Over 90% of bottles sold in Norway are returned to be recycled, and most of them probably go through automatic machines in the shops. Norway and other countries have a deposit system where you pay extra per bottle, and then get the money back when you return them. Places that sell these products are required to accept any bottle that their customers bring them, so most of them want to use these automatic machines to avoid hiring extra staff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI7OldXuq7c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI7OldXuq7c These machines have existed since the 70s, but the modern machines are of course much more intelligent than the early models. They used to accept glass bottles too, but they are not part of this system anymore. (glass is recycled separately) Tomra is one of the larger manufacturers: https://www.tomra.com/en/collection/reverse-vending https://www.tomra.com/en/collection/reverse-vending

smallnamespace 5y ago

Does the melting process need to run nonstop? If not, you can use cheap off-peak renewables for it too.

kortex 5y ago
Currently yes. There's a lot of heat capacity to the furnaces so a cold start requires a lot of heat to get to nominal. That's not to say one couldn't be designed in such a way that it can be set to idle without losing too much heat. It's probably much easier to do that if it's electric vs nat gas.

hervature 5y ago

I can't tell if this is satire. We used to do exactly this with milk bottles. From [1]: "In 1975, 94% of milk in the UK was in glass bottles, but as of 2012 this number was down to 4%." The reality is that plastic is so much cheaper that people balk at the cost of recycling exactly like the price of humanely treated chicken eggs even if they want to do the right thing. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_milk_bottle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_milk_bottle

blitzar 5y ago
Proud to say that my milk is in the 4%. Interesting how sometimes progress is a step in the wrong direction, the milk man even had an electric car way back in the day! > balk at the cost of recycling exactly like the price of humanely treated chicken eggs even if they want to do the right thing That is right before they balk at paying the farmer more than 25p a litre to produce the milk they are going to drink.

qw 5y ago

Over 90% of bottles sold in Norway are returned to be recycled, and most of them probably go through automatic machines in the shops. Norway and other countries have a deposit system where you pay extra per bottle, and then get the money back when you return them. Places that sell these products are required to accept any bottle that their customers bring them, so most of them want to use these automatic machines to avoid hiring extra staff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI7OldXuq7c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI7OldXuq7c These machines have existed since the 70s, but the modern machines are of course much more intelligent than the early models. They used to accept glass bottles too, but they are not part of this system anymore. (glass is recycled separately) Tomra is one of the larger manufacturers: https://www.tomra.com/en/collection/reverse-vending https://www.tomra.com/en/collection/reverse-vending