Green Decisions – Glass Or Plastic?

Welcome to green decisions glass or plastic, in a time when deposit glass bottles are a thing of the past and we are told plastic bottles are a health risk it seems the decision would be clear.

When I was a teen or younger the glass deposit soda bottle was the only kind of bottle available. When I wanted to have a candy bar or was thirsty all I had to do was clean up the empty soda bottles from the side of the road and take them to the local store and redeem the cash. Then I had money to purchase a snack and a drink. I once collected enough redeemable bottles to finance a weekend camping trip food and all simply by clean up a few hours each day for a week.

The glass deposit bottle system only cost the buyer one time if they were the sort to redeem their empty bottles. For the litterbug it was a self imposed tax if you will. The litterbug created an opportunity for someone like myself to obtain cash for cleaning up the litter.

The soda bottlers ushered in plastic bottles stating that glass bottles were no longer cost effective. When you consider the usable life of the glass bottle and that breakage can be recycled into new glass cheaper than starting with the raw materials. Who is kidding who?

The questions that I have never had answered are how is it there has not been a deposit set up for beer or wine or hard liquor bottles? How about the cost effective argument, why is it not cost effective for the soda bottler and yet it must be cost effective for the alcohol packaging?

The plastic bottle is an environmental monster that also carries health risks. Especially when Oncologists recommend you don’t microwave plastic.

Maybe if we could redeem plastic bottles nationally it would turn this problem around. The only way to be effective would be for all bottling like every day gallon milk bottle. The plastic bottle when recycled takes a different path as its single purposed and not reusable as a bottle. There is more energy required to alter this plastic bottle into other products than to simply reuse a glass bottle.

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