If you pay more, all you'll know is that the owner of that factory will have a more expensive model of Mercedes and another vacation home. And that's before you realize that it's called "glassblowing" because the workers need to put their mouths on the tubes with hot glass on the other end, and blow into them. I see at least four steps there where the workers can't wear masks. And what about the people who can't pay more? Do they just do without bottles?
Why are we automating information and art, instead of unpleasant jobs like this? I'm not arguing for firing these dudes. I want them to feed their families - just not having to do it this way.
because humans beings are the most advanced robot we can make using unskilled labor, and some countries have flooded the market with them. So, they are not valued. Companies can buy them up for pennies, use them up, and replace them easily, esp when the cost of having and raising them is externalized to parents who must also "earn their keep" by working as wage slaves to companies. It's an endless cycle until we reach a population max and companies have to really start fighting over us.
Because text and digital imagery are infinitely easier to manipulate within a computer, compared to engineering a big physical machine that requires a bunch of parts, which all have to also be engineered, manufactured, assembled, sold, shipped. No one set out to "automate information and art," it just turns out to be something easy to do with nothing more than the kinds of computers we all use every day.
Must be nice to live in a country where you can just breathe in all that glass dust and wear whatever sandals you want without all that work-safety nonsense. /s
♪♫ Chronic silicosis in the morning, chronic silicosis in the evening, chronic silicosis at supper time. When glass is in your lungs you'll have chronic silicosis until you die! ♪♫
That seems fine. Glass is just silicate, basically inert rock. It's not going to leach nasties into the soil, and the energy it takes to make new glass is pretty much the same as to recycle old glass. Recycling glass just doesn't really save that much energy. Reusing does, though. Always reuse glass if you possibly can.
Bring back more glass bottles and less plastic.. Glass is so much easier to recycle and remake into new things and doesnt break down into microplastics.
The problem is when a glass bottle has been made incorrectly and there are macro pieces of glass in it (it happens; especially with preserved food in glass jars), you can literally die of it (bleeding of the intestines). There is no perfect solution.
Glass adds ~1.5 kg/4L (~3lbs/gallon) for any shipped liquid, and adding padding/safety space decreases the maximum density of shipping even further. Decreasing shipping density for any good will make it both more expensive and more polluting. This is not a problem that has one simple solution; we have to change packaging, get people used to doing without things capitalism normalized having access to (strawberries in February?!), repatriate and decentralize manufacturing, among other things.
Weirdly we are running out of sand. Not just any sand, I think the uae is one of the biggest IMPORTERS of sand right now ironically but the sand for concrete and stuff is slowly running out/harder to get
No, we don't, that's the problem. The kind of high-purity quartz sand that's good for making glass is running out. And too much of it has been contaminated with pigments which are essentially impossible to remove. So even recycling glass out of old dumps is next to impossible, you can't get clear glass from it. And it has other uses too so it's not just glassmaking that is using up the remaining sand.
Glass takes tremendous amounts of energy (usually natural gas) and thin-walled thermos bottles break easily unless they're surrounded by lots of plastic.
True, but glass in nature ultimately breaks down into sand. Just don't grind it and breathe in the dust … (I'm aware it's probably a bit more complicated than 'just')
In South Florida (Ft. Lauderdale area), they stopped accepting glass in the recycling centers. I assume because of the dangers dealing with broken glass. It's really disheartening when trying to do our best recycling things.
I work for a glass bottle manufacturer. They use a certain percentage of cullet (recycled glass) which reduces the temperature needed to run the furnace. There are technical problems with using over a certain proporton of cullet but they're solving that at the moment. They've manufactured the most sustainable glass ever earlier this year.
Thank you for the informative link. Do you know how many times glass might be recycleable this way, or how the water/energy use compares, or if the output is food grade? There are a lot of problems to solve, pumped to see somebody solving them. Best of luck to you and your employer :)
Glass is infinitely recyclable. Of course, there is a sorting process to remove glass that cannot be cleaned before being melted down. Encirc are very big on sustainability, they are always looking for ways to be a cleaner, greener business. I'm an outside contractor but I'm very impressed by them. The output is definitely food grade - remember, it's been heated to 1700C before being formed into glass bottles and jars.
*economically viable to recycle. Plastic is very difficult to recycle, paper can be remade into lower-grade paper, glass (if separated by colour) is not a problem apart from the energy requirements. Metal, once separated, is at least as easy as ore, usually easier. Aluminium is the most viable because making it from ore is an expensive pain, but remelting it is easy by comparison!
I am starting to save all my aluminum from things I buy and going to either take it to a recycler when there is enough or might just remelt it into ingots myself.
Yes, but you don't drink micro plastics, or softeners, dissolving into the fluids.... you can always taste the plastic in the fluid, when you drink from these single use plastic bottles.
That's mainly because soda has a very strong taste. It may be placebo/nocebo, but people certainly claim that the coke in glass bottles tastes different to the cans and/or the plastic bottles
This was the moment that I decided 100% I had to quit my job asap as an industrial garage door technician.. got sent to a glass factory, working on the door in the room where the balls of glass come tumbling down the chute from the shelter in a big pile. Every surface in there was covered in a 1" layer of fine glass dust, every jostle of the door a dust cloud would fall on us. just gloves as PPE, had to remind myself not to wipe the sweat from my face with the gloves on so I don't shred my skin.
Oh I didnt say that glass didnt have it's own dangers, my friend. Like many things it can be very tricky to work with and glass dust is no joke... but a shard of glass out in the world isnt going to break down into microplastics in our soil or waters.. it will eventually erode down to pebbles and sand. And unlike plastic it can be collected and melted down into molten glass and reshaped into new items, where as (only certain) plastic can only be reused once or twice before it's no good.
Whoops that was supposed to reply to @ElbowDeepInAHorse with the chronic silicosis... I am totally on board with plastic being an unnecessarily over-used solution. Glass, metal, cellophane, wax paper can fulfill the vast majority of consumer packaging needs. People's arguments for plastic are usually tied into supply-chain logistical concerns, because products get shipped from far-away outsourced economies and glass is too fragile/heavy, therefore expensive.
What I've heard first hand from someone who has to analyze those kinds of decisions, was the example that having the packaging made in plastic, locally, created less environmental impact than having it shipped in glass from far away, where the cheap glass was available; and for fragility concerns the glass was being packaged in plastic for shipping anyway.. but all I hear is package it in glass locally and stop fucking around...
It’s what used to be done. Had a bottling plant back here in the early 50s (7up) that did just that. Entire plant could process and ship in/out reusable glass bottles. Even bottled local soda brands to boot and did the same with that
Yes, but I looked this up and actually recycling glass uses more energy than making new glass. But glass itself presumably ends up as sand again eventually, so that's not a problem really with disposing of them.
When I lived in Germany they sanitized and refilled heavy duty plastic bottles and every one has a return price for bringing it back. I miss that. Italy (I’m in Sicily specifically) doesn’t have the same recycling protocols as Germany and so many roads are still covered in trash from dumping. We have a road to get to our house from the highway we call Trash Road. They definitely take things every day of the week for recycling but so many still dump their trash on the side of the road.
Where I live, if you buy anything in a bottle or can you pay 5¢ extra for it, but if you recycle it you get 5¢ back. Aluminum can and glass bottle waste is non-existent. People will even go around collecting cans and bottles for return. Before I had a decent paying job, I would go around to people I knew and collect their cans and bottles. A single trash bag full is about 5$. I could normally get about $100-$125 worth of cans and bottles in a given month.
Even with the higher energy of recycling glass, its going to be less damaging to recycle it than the production of fossil fuels to create continuous plastic products. Plastic in which recycling it isnt even a viable option for most of it and it just gets shipped to impoverished country's trash dumps. And when it is recyclable, you can only reuse the material once or twice before it becomes unusable entirely. And yeah, glass erodes back down into sand and pebbles over time.
"recycling glass uses more energy than making new glass" Gonna need a source on that. From what I've read, "Energy costs drop about 2-3% for every 10% cullet used in the manufacturing process" (cullet being recycled glass)
Probably depends what part of the production chain you consider the beginning. From the raw beads or whatever to bottle, yeah probably less. From the Earth, probably not.
Aw dang, looks like I might have misread it! Apologies, and thank you for the gentle correction. It did make me a bit more conscious about trying to reuse glass if possible rather than throwing it in the bottle bank to be recycled! But always best to know the actual facts not the misread facts :)
There's a very small sunset of places in the states where you can buy milk that comes in reusable glass bottles. Huge CRV, understandably, to encourage you to bring the bottle back. I have a bottle I'm gonna have to return once I get a car. But only reason I get their milk is they make fantastic flavored milks (I like to get the chocolate and banana and mix them. Nummy. And the orange is shockingly delicious)
Except you don't "just" do that. You have to transport it to the place where it will be sanitized and refilled. It's heavy and fragile, so you also need protective containers for it. Much of it is still damaged in use or transport, so you have to weed out the damaged ones you can't refill. Then it takes energy (hot water and water pressure) and pollution (detergent and organic residue from the bottles discharged to the sanitary sewer stream and then to the waterways) to wash and (1/n)
sanitize the bottles that could be re-used. The ones that can't be, those have to be transported again (who cares if they break more, but they are still heavy) to a recycling center, if available, or a landfill. To be environmentally break-even with a plastic bottle, a glass or ceramic bottle needs to be re-used around 200 times. That's a very tall order even for a household mug, much less a moving industrial product. Most don't make it to that. (2/2)
ThrowAwayAcct0000
Wow, I had really assumed more of this would be done by machines instead of people!
WP04849
Good reason to always wash these things before you use them
Brandy321
all that glass dust is perfectly healthy
GuitarBobMonterey
Too many quick cuts, brain can't 'watch' this clip.
snotrocketscience
They want to convey the general idea of it without letting you see the horrific labor practices.
michiyl
Aurosanda
My favorite part was the mandatory foot massage
diontheunstable
waaait, aren't they doing that silver coating process they used to use on mirrors? Isn't that stuff constantly emitting highly toxic fumes?
MCNewYorkLives
I was hoping for the loop to imply that the bottles are immediately broken in order to be reforged again
Aelok
Sisyphus Foundry, LLC.
CeruleanSky1988
Mmmm foot glass
Liondrome
So much of this could be automated. Guessing this factory relies on cheap labor though, as seen by lack of safety equipment.
massholesome
Mmmmm, nothing better than inhaling pulverized glass while shoveling.
zeacorzeppelin10
svga
oh lord the feet...
HowMuchWoodCouldAWoodDuckDuckIfAWoodDuckCouldDuckWood
This is why you wash new dishes before you use them
LordChickenNips
How much do you think these people make an hour?
sherlockhooves
Thank you oil industry for pushing plastics on us.
Macetheace50
I saw a documentary on Glass Making. Apparently, England had quite an industry, before it all was done over seas.
flordelasantillas
I have a grand idea, let's work around glass barefooted.
petresun
Ok. That's mind-blowing. There's Pakistani breath in every 2 layer canister? There has to be a metaphor here.
VodkaReindeer
Teamworks makes the dream work
Erig303
BanditKablooie
I would rather pay more, much more, and know that the people who make these are at least getting shoes, eye protection, and a good mask.
OliverOtter
If you pay more, all you'll know is that the owner of that factory will have a more expensive model of Mercedes and another vacation home. And that's before you realize that it's called "glassblowing" because the workers need to put their mouths on the tubes with hot glass on the other end, and blow into them. I see at least four steps there where the workers can't wear masks. And what about the people who can't pay more? Do they just do without bottles?
mondeca
Why are we automating information and art, instead of unpleasant jobs like this? I'm not arguing for firing these dudes. I want them to feed their families - just not having to do it this way.
sadurdaynight
because humans beings are the most advanced robot we can make using unskilled labor, and some countries have flooded the market with them. So, they are not valued. Companies can buy them up for pennies, use them up, and replace them easily, esp when the cost of having and raising them is externalized to parents who must also "earn their keep" by working as wage slaves to companies. It's an endless cycle until we reach a population max and companies have to really start fighting over us.
unclesporky
Because text and digital imagery are infinitely easier to manipulate within a computer, compared to engineering a big physical machine that requires a bunch of parts, which all have to also be engineered, manufactured, assembled, sold, shipped. No one set out to "automate information and art," it just turns out to be something easy to do with nothing more than the kinds of computers we all use every day.
manyslayer
And people are still cheaper to replace than robots.
kiwicantab20116
Sure, cover your head, but don't worry about breathing in those fine glass dust particles.
TheWarHymn
What glass dust? I don't see any grinding going on.
Metalsmith21
Yah the guy with the shovel slinging around broken glass is totes fine! I'm sure he doesn't plan on living past 40.
oldguyexlurker
Cover your head because "God" told you to. He'll protect you from the glass dust... /s
WarlordPipsqueak
Must be nice to live in a country where you can just breathe in all that glass dust and wear whatever sandals you want without all that work-safety nonsense. /s
michiyl
98% profit increase since the last accident!
MagicChickens
Usa?
ElbowDeepInAHorse
Nothing like chronic silicosis in the morning!
Frederf
♪♫ Chronic silicosis in the morning, chronic silicosis in the evening, chronic silicosis at supper time. When glass is in your lungs you'll have chronic silicosis until you die! ♪♫
Spidey209
Isn't that related to silica dust - ie not glass?
70m4h4wk
Breathing any kind of dust long term will leave you with silicosis or something very similar
ElbowDeepInAHorse
Glass is predominantly made of silica sand, albeit melty-melty-hothot
SmithNameman
I'd take that over pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis any day.
deadtedw
Google says this is an invented word. No shit, Google? All words are invented.
dingleberrysauce
gesundheit
oldguyexlurker
This is what I saw in my mind's eye...
LilaLotos
Better wear your safty-sandals then.
BanzaiRun
That glass has been shot
PineappleLoopsBroether
So if you’re working there and someone shows up a few minutes late…. You’d turn to them and say…. 1/2
PineappleLoopsBroether
WELCOME TO THE PARTY PAL
JacktheKind
i was more concerned with all the fumes from the metal lining in between
vissago
thats what i need. some random dudes dirty naked feet on a bottle for use with my mouth
nanyatenyaa
Boy howdy just wait until you hear what veggies lay in for months.
JustTryingToLiveLife
Considering how hot glass gets melted at, anything else gets incinerated from the shear heat
metroid2
Well to be fair glass doesn't host as many microbes as plastic does and it is unaffected by bleach and many other chemicals.
tanebot
Haha this implies 'for recycling' glass gets recycled, where I live it just gets crushed and used as road bed. Like my optimism.
arrbos
That seems fine. Glass is just silicate, basically inert rock. It's not going to leach nasties into the soil, and the energy it takes to make new glass is pretty much the same as to recycle old glass. Recycling glass just doesn't really save that much energy. Reusing does, though. Always reuse glass if you possibly can.
tanebot
I keep saying "the ground's gotta be made out of something."
throwawaythosepoints
reuse is better than recycling.
rchcopper
Dewar flasks
rchcopper
(sadly from a business sense for him, he never patented it - damn good chemist though)
weidermeijer
NO, you’re a FLASK!
anotherdickat
they might have skipped showing us the vacuum and seal step, thermos bottles at the very least..
PTNLemay
Do they make glass thermoses?
anotherdickat
Sure do, https://www.amazon.com/s?k=glass+vacuum+thermos --- But the original is the thermos brand in 1904 https://thermos.com/pages/about
rchcopper
The original ones were double-wall glass flasks, yes. The plastic round the outside protected the actual vacuum flask inside.
rchcopper
The red tubes attached at the end are for the vacuum. They did skip the tube being sealed though.
anotherdickat
thanks, I missed that part
HikariShade
Bring back more glass bottles and less plastic.. Glass is so much easier to recycle and remake into new things and doesnt break down into microplastics.
Bytencoder
Metal is the best at this aspect.
lifonaut
The problem is when a glass bottle has been made incorrectly and there are macro pieces of glass in it (it happens; especially with preserved food in glass jars), you can literally die of it (bleeding of the intestines). There is no perfect solution.
sparklepantsthedestroyer
Glass adds ~1.5 kg/4L (~3lbs/gallon) for any shipped liquid, and adding padding/safety space decreases the maximum density of shipping even further. Decreasing shipping density for any good will make it both more expensive and more polluting. This is not a problem that has one simple solution; we have to change packaging, get people used to doing without things capitalism normalized having access to (strawberries in February?!), repatriate and decentralize manufacturing, among other things.
AllTheGoodUserNamesAreTakenFML
Glass is heavy and fragile. Aluminum is where it's at.
Blimjoe
I work for a rubbish/recycling collection company and the amount of plastic waste would boggle your mind
theredacted
Weirdly we are running out of sand. Not just any sand, I think the uae is one of the biggest IMPORTERS of sand right now ironically but the sand for concrete and stuff is slowly running out/harder to get
VodkaReindeer
We might have plenty of the kind one uses for glass though.
OliverOtter
No, we don't, that's the problem. The kind of high-purity quartz sand that's good for making glass is running out. And too much of it has been contaminated with pigments which are essentially impossible to remove. So even recycling glass out of old dumps is next to impossible, you can't get clear glass from it. And it has other uses too so it's not just glassmaking that is using up the remaining sand.
HenryLongfellowIII
Glass takes tremendous amounts of energy (usually natural gas) and thin-walled thermos bottles break easily unless they're surrounded by lots of plastic.
somethingdark
Most recycling places around me have stopped taking glass because it's too expensive to recycle.
OliverOtter
Just because "microglass" is natural doesn't mean it's not harmful. Look up silicosis.
RunawaySpoons
True, but glass in nature ultimately breaks down into sand. Just don't grind it and breathe in the dust … (I'm aware it's probably a bit more complicated than 'just')
Perturaboss
shall we sign you up to work at the glass recycling factory?
pomax
Then pay more for them. As long as plastic bottles are cheaper, what you want is pretty much irrelevant, companies gonna company.
DeveloperExtraordinaire
In South Florida (Ft. Lauderdale area), they stopped accepting glass in the recycling centers. I assume because of the dangers dealing with broken glass. It's really disheartening when trying to do our best recycling things.
Ghlargh
Glass was the first packaging to be recycled in large scale in Sweden, there are perfectly good methods of handling it safely.
Ghlargh
I'm saying they have to have some other reason for not accepting it, probably that it's not economically viable...
ruint
yes but not glass. aluminium is the only truly recyclable packaging.
southoffrance
I work for a glass bottle manufacturer. They use a certain percentage of cullet (recycled glass) which reduces the temperature needed to run the furnace. There are technical problems with using over a certain proporton of cullet but they're solving that at the moment. They've manufactured the most sustainable glass ever earlier this year.
southoffrance
LInk: https://www.argentfuels.com/news/encirc-argent-fuels/
ruint
Thank you for the informative link. Do you know how many times glass might be recycleable this way, or how the water/energy use compares, or if the output is food grade? There are a lot of problems to solve, pumped to see somebody solving them. Best of luck to you and your employer :)
southoffrance
Glass is infinitely recyclable. Of course, there is a sorting process to remove glass that cannot be cleaned before being melted down. Encirc are very big on sustainability, they are always looking for ways to be a cleaner, greener business. I'm an outside contractor but I'm very impressed by them. The output is definitely food grade - remember, it's been heated to 1700C before being formed into glass bottles and jars.
HonHomes
*economically viable to recycle. Plastic is very difficult to recycle, paper can be remade into lower-grade paper, glass (if separated by colour) is not a problem apart from the energy requirements. Metal, once separated, is at least as easy as ore, usually easier. Aluminium is the most viable because making it from ore is an expensive pain, but remelting it is easy by comparison!
IMakeLotsOfReferencesAndRemakes
I am starting to save all my aluminum from things I buy and going to either take it to a recycler when there is enough or might just remelt it into ingots myself.
swedeonamoose
1.5liter glass bottles would suck to drag home from the store tho
RiverHawk
A little bit more effort but not problematic. We still have lots of drinks that come in glass bottles.
VodkaReindeer
It would also suck to drop your 1L 7 up bottle that you just got onto the porch floor ;(
vizeroy42
Yes, but you don't drink micro plastics, or softeners, dissolving into the fluids.... you can always taste the plastic in the fluid, when you drink from these single use plastic bottles.
VodkaReindeer
Only time I've tasted plastic was in a water bottle attached to my bike. Never in a soda bottle. I think you might be generalizing.
Cevoe
Don’t you think something may have been masking the taste of the plastic in that soda bottle? Like… the soda?
VodkaReindeer
They did say "fluid" not water.
HonHomes
That's mainly because soda has a very strong taste. It may be placebo/nocebo, but people certainly claim that the coke in glass bottles tastes different to the cans and/or the plastic bottles
GenuineBeamm
This was the moment that I decided 100% I had to quit my job asap as an industrial garage door technician.. got sent to a glass factory, working on the door in the room where the balls of glass come tumbling down the chute from the shelter in a big pile. Every surface in there was covered in a 1" layer of fine glass dust, every jostle of the door a dust cloud would fall on us. just gloves as PPE, had to remind myself not to wipe the sweat from my face with the gloves on so I don't shred my skin.
FellaWithUmbrella
Hey! People pay money to get exfoliated.
GenuineBeamm
*smelter
OddlyPacific
I don’t even know her!
HikariShade
Oh I didnt say that glass didnt have it's own dangers, my friend. Like many things it can be very tricky to work with and glass dust is no joke... but a shard of glass out in the world isnt going to break down into microplastics in our soil or waters.. it will eventually erode down to pebbles and sand. And unlike plastic it can be collected and melted down into molten glass and reshaped into new items, where as (only certain) plastic can only be reused once or twice before it's no good.
GenuineBeamm
Whoops that was supposed to reply to @ElbowDeepInAHorse with the chronic silicosis... I am totally on board with plastic being an unnecessarily over-used solution. Glass, metal, cellophane, wax paper can fulfill the vast majority of consumer packaging needs. People's arguments for plastic are usually tied into supply-chain logistical concerns, because products get shipped from far-away outsourced economies and glass is too fragile/heavy, therefore expensive.
GenuineBeamm
What I've heard first hand from someone who has to analyze those kinds of decisions, was the example that having the packaging made in plastic, locally, created less environmental impact than having it shipped in glass from far away, where the cheap glass was available; and for fragility concerns the glass was being packaged in plastic for shipping anyway.. but all I hear is package it in glass locally and stop fucking around...
mohavewolfpup
It’s what used to be done. Had a bottling plant back here in the early 50s (7up) that did just that. Entire plant could process and ship in/out reusable glass bottles. Even bottled local soda brands to boot and did the same with that
RunawaySpoons
Yes, but I looked this up and actually recycling glass uses more energy than making new glass. But glass itself presumably ends up as sand again eventually, so that's not a problem really with disposing of them.
TheSecondPiewackit
Do Bottle Masonry likke that hippie Earthship shit. I do. It's great.
TheLooja
Wait till people learn that the sand mafia is bpeeding our planet of usable sand. (Desert sand is incredibly smooth from being windblown and unsuitable for industrial purposes). https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.abc.net.au/article/11779570
amglasgow
Sand for glass making is in increasingly short supply, though.
TheLooja
The amount of people unaware of this issue is astonishing. It gets little to no coverage.
adventureswithadhd
When I lived in Germany they sanitized and refilled heavy duty plastic bottles and every one has a return price for bringing it back. I miss that. Italy (I’m in Sicily specifically) doesn’t have the same recycling protocols as Germany and so many roads are still covered in trash from dumping. We have a road to get to our house from the highway we call Trash Road. They definitely take things every day of the week for recycling but so many still dump their trash on the side of the road.
Styrkyr
Where I live, if you buy anything in a bottle or can you pay 5¢ extra for it, but if you recycle it you get 5¢ back. Aluminum can and glass bottle waste is non-existent. People will even go around collecting cans and bottles for return. Before I had a decent paying job, I would go around to people I knew and collect their cans and bottles. A single trash bag full is about 5$. I could normally get about $100-$125 worth of cans and bottles in a given month.
HikariShade
Even with the higher energy of recycling glass, its going to be less damaging to recycle it than the production of fossil fuels to create continuous plastic products. Plastic in which recycling it isnt even a viable option for most of it and it just gets shipped to impoverished country's trash dumps. And when it is recyclable, you can only reuse the material once or twice before it becomes unusable entirely. And yeah, glass erodes back down into sand and pebbles over time.
StrandedonEarth
Research is ongoing to pyrolyse waste plastic, basically turning it back into oil to make into new plastic. Industrial microwave is one method
RiverHawk
While nice that doesn't solve all the plastic waste going into the environment and eventually breaking down to micro plastics.
Bytencoder
This is about waste, not entropy.
natabus
"recycling glass uses more energy than making new glass" Gonna need a source on that. From what I've read, "Energy costs drop about 2-3% for every 10% cullet used in the manufacturing process" (cullet being recycled glass)
Frederf
Probably depends what part of the production chain you consider the beginning. From the raw beads or whatever to bottle, yeah probably less. From the Earth, probably not.
RunawaySpoons
Aw dang, looks like I might have misread it! Apologies, and thank you for the gentle correction. It did make me a bit more conscious about trying to reuse glass if possible rather than throwing it in the bottle bank to be recycled! But always best to know the actual facts not the misread facts :)
76000BatteryLlamas
But with things like bottles, you don't have to make a new bottle - you just sanitize and refill it
ChloeRed
This is how milk bottles are in the UK for delivery: the bottles are reused multiple times before being recycled.
TheFakeCraigFerguson
There's a very small sunset of places in the states where you can buy milk that comes in reusable glass bottles. Huge CRV, understandably, to encourage you to bring the bottle back. I have a bottle I'm gonna have to return once I get a car. But only reason I get their milk is they make fantastic flavored milks (I like to get the chocolate and banana and mix them. Nummy. And the orange is shockingly delicious)
ChloeRed
Where as my area in the UK still has daily milk deliveries if you want them, so you can have a fresh pint on your doorstep every morning
OliverOtter
Except you don't "just" do that. You have to transport it to the place where it will be sanitized and refilled. It's heavy and fragile, so you also need protective containers for it. Much of it is still damaged in use or transport, so you have to weed out the damaged ones you can't refill. Then it takes energy (hot water and water pressure) and pollution (detergent and organic residue from the bottles discharged to the sanitary sewer stream and then to the waterways) to wash and (1/n)
OliverOtter
sanitize the bottles that could be re-used. The ones that can't be, those have to be transported again (who cares if they break more, but they are still heavy) to a recycling center, if available, or a landfill. To be environmentally break-even with a plastic bottle, a glass or ceramic bottle needs to be re-used around 200 times. That's a very tall order even for a household mug, much less a moving industrial product. Most don't make it to that. (2/2)
tethermyheather
Unless you make your own stuff. I make all my own alcohol.
76000BatteryLlamas
I guess you weren't alive prior to about 1986 when this process happened for literally every soda. You would buy a case of bottles