Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

rabb1thole t1_ivviow4 wrote

Reply to comment by IvanIsOnReddit in [OC] World's Largest Plastic Polluter Now 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference Sponsor by haboo213

Glass is very costly to recycle. Many recycling services won't accept glass because it is so expensive to transport. And if you throw glass on the ground (which is the problem here), then it breaks and causes bigger problems. The issue isn't the aluminum coke cans (which are easily recycled) but rather the dolts that litter.

1

IvanIsOnReddit t1_ivvlw6y wrote

Glass does not need recycling. We have been reusing glass bottles for centuries.

5

Queasy-Dirt3193 t1_ivvt6ja wrote

Woah and reusing the bottles counts as recycling in this case. It’s expensive to do it, which is why most bottles are plastic.

−1

IvanIsOnReddit t1_ivvtsdq wrote

Reusing is not the same as recycling. Recycling would be to melt down the glass and make a different bottle. Reusing is cleaning, sterilizing and maybe reprinting the bottle. Less energy intensive and the same supply chain that delivers the full bottles receives the empty ones. No empty delivery trucks on the way back. This has been done and proven before.

7

rabb1thole t1_ivvruj6 wrote

Actually, we have not. Very few places take back glass bottles. Do your homework.

−4

IvanIsOnReddit t1_ivvrxwf wrote

Maybe not in the developed world today. Remember the milkman?

3

rabb1thole t1_ivvt85c wrote

Oh sure, drag in .60 years ago.

−4

IvanIsOnReddit t1_ivvtikh wrote

Yeah, that was still being done with coke in Latin America til the 00’s. We did it like that at home. I’m sure Africa too. I never saw one of those bottles littering. They were picked up to sell within 5 minutes of you abandoning them.

3

rabb1thole t1_ivvty5w wrote

That's nice. It doesn't make it the norm. Do your research. Glass is too expensive to recycle.

0

IvanIsOnReddit t1_ivvu7gz wrote

You can’t even tell the difference between recycling and reusing and are asking me to do research on wether glass was being used before disposable plastic was invented?

4

IvanIsOnReddit t1_ivvuhw9 wrote

My point is precisely a criticism of it not being the norm.

Here’s how it works, where it works: you buy a liter of coke in a glass bottle, it costs $2 but you pay $4 because you have no bottle to return. You drink it. When you want more Coke you bring the bottle and exchange it for a full bottle. Option 2: you buy the Coke for $2, drink it there and return the bottle right there.

Am I calling for banning plastic? No. But the default where I grew up was the glass bottle, no plastic waste. Plastic is almost never fully recycled, it degrades every cycle and is often mixed in with new plastic because it makes the manufacturing process less variable.

2

Sanchopanza1377 t1_ivvwzef wrote

I lived in a tiny little town in the United States of America, and when I bought a Coke in a glass bottle, I drank it there....

This was the norm until the climate change crowd got paper bags banned, insisting plastic was better for the environment.

Yo want to reduce CO2, go plant a *&#@ tree.

Other than that, you idiots should stop trying to help...

−1

evilgiraffe666 t1_ivxbfj3 wrote

You can still get milk delivered in the UK with reused bottles, it's unusual but becoming a little more popular as an eco thing.

1

thefpspower t1_ivw1weq wrote

I've never heard of recycling services not accepting glass, it's one of the most recycled materials we have because it is actually not that expensive to do it compared to getting more sand to make new glass.

Glass bottles are more expensive than plastic yes, doesn't mean we shouldn't use them more.

4

rabb1thole t1_ivwdpz2 wrote

The US is largely single stream recycling which means human sorting. Glass breaks, so it's a laceration risk for the single stream sorter AND broken glass can damage the machinery. The US is a large country with many states bigger than EU countries. Even within a state, the cost to move the glass to an appropriate facility makes it unprofitable. Even with split stream, the broken glass is still a hazard and glass remains heavy to transport. There's just no current way to recoup the cost. I don't like it, but those are the facts.

Edit to add: I'm not trying to be a prick, but before randomly arguing a point, maybe do some research. Any search engine should provide answers.

0

Souslik t1_ivxhw13 wrote

I don't know about aluminium, but when it comes to plastic technology doesn't allow them to recycle more than 20% on the first cycle. After 4 it drops below 1%.

And they can't even make 100% recycled plastic bottles (even though they claim they can) because that would mean an unpure plastic which doesn't have the same aesthetic properties than a pure one.

The problem is definitely on both Coca Cola and the dolts that litter.

1