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Has anyone had the experience of being told to simply throw away a glass bottle - that it's essentially made of sand, and it's much more efficient just to make
by justinator 13y ago
Has anyone had the experience of being told to simply throw away a glass bottle - that it's essentially made of sand, and it's much more efficient just to make a new bottle from the raw material? That's happened to me, from someone working at a restaurant. I get the feeling form this (small) story, that that's not actually entirely true. What say you, HN?
- NovemberWest 13y agoRecycling is a good thing, the opinions of waiters (or what not) not withstanding. Maybe restaurant employees aren't the best source of info on the topic.
- ars 13y agoRecycling metal is a good thing. For everything else it's usually bad for the environment, and sometimes neutral. Rarely positive. Glass should just be tossed. Burning everything else (i.e. paper and plastic) for energy (with a good filter) is probably the best option.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- repiret 13y agoI live in a rural areal, and the local recycling center recently stopped accepting glass. Apparently the cost of transporting it to someone who has the facilities to recycle it outweighs the price the recycler will pay. For a time, the city picked up the difference, but they aren't doing that anymore. My point is that whether or not something is economic to recycle is at least in part dependent on where that thing is. I suppose it seems obvious when put that way; but I don't think its obvious at the outset.
- suby 13y agoI don't know if this is the case, but shouldn't a lot of the transportation costs be happening regardless? The distributor ships product to a store, and when they're done offloading the product, they take the recycled products from the store back to the distributor where they're headed regardless. You'd still have to transport it to a recycling center from the distributor, but I don't see why you can't build recycling centers next to distribution centers.
- lobster_johnson 13y agoSee this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5909844 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5909844.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- ars 13y agoIt's pretty much true. It saves a small amount of energy, but the cost of collecting, sorting and cleaning the glass can leave you in the negative. Of all things in the world glass is the very last one that needs recycling. See my comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5910322 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5910322
- reledi 13y ago> Of all things in the world glass is the very last one that needs recycling. I agree but for a different reason. Glass is easy to reuse if the bottle is still intact.