Plastic bottles were first used commercially in 1947. They quickly became popular with both manufacturers and customers due to their lightweight nature and relatively low production and transportation costs compared with glass bottles. However, the biggest advantage plastic bottles have over glass, is their superior resistance to breakage, in both production and transportation. Except for wine and beer, the food industry has almost completely replaced glass with plastic bottles. (Wikipedia)
Most beverage bottles today are made from a plastic known as Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), sometimes called polyester or Mylar. It is recyclable (PET plastics are coded with the resin identification code number “1” inside the universal recycling symbol).
Recycling a single plastic bottle can conserve enough energy to light a 60-watt light bulb for up to six hours.
Of the 30 million tons of plastic waste generated in the U.S., about 7 percent is recovered for recycling. This plastic waste ends up in landfills, beaches, rivers and oceans and contributes to such devastating problems as the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch, a swirling vortex of garbage the size of a continent where plastic outnumbers plankton. Plus, most plastic is made from oil.
Vermont’s Bottle Bill, implemented in 1973, is Vermont’s most successful recycling and litter prevention program. The state recycles 85% of the beverage containers accepted by the program, compared to only 36% of all other containers.
The current program includes beer, soda, liquor and mixed wine drinks in metal, glass, plastic or paper.
There are currently 10 U.S. states and 12 Canadian provinces that have a deposit law requiring refundable deposits on specific beverage containers. Of these, 5 states have extended the bill to cover non-carbonated beverages. (CA, HI, MI, CT & NC).
There are currently two bills before the Vermont Legislature that supporters say will keep an estimated 100 million more bottles and cans out of Vermont’s landfills and off roadsides each year. These bills cover non-carbonated beverages like bottled water, cider, and wine.
Take another look at the picture above. A black sedan with NH plates was parked in a municipal lot all afternoon. (That’s OK, it’s a parking lot). However, when it was time to leave, the driver opened the door and neatly placed 3 water bottles on the pavement and then drove away. Besides being the height of laziness, what else does that tell us?
Need to de-commercialize the popularity of bottled waters
In NYC it is not unusual to leave neatly placed plastic bottles and cans at different places for the homeless to take for redemption. Often I’ve seen residents take their collections to curbside in tied plastic bags for them. Sometimes you’d see bottles lined up on a stoop or on the sidewalk where before long they’d be carried off. You also can sometimes see homeless and or poor people with old shopping carts that are overflowing with bags of empty plastic and can garbage. They go through the public and private trash containers making their rounds.
What was the intention from the black sedan? As well as answering that, your article, yet again, drives home the almost dire need to de-commercialize the popularity of a legion of branded bottle waters that are too often questionable quality at best, and environmentally devastating at worst.
When I lived in Boston there
When I lived in Boston there was an elderly Vietnamese woman who would come through our very hilly neighborhood carrying 2 large canvas bags tied to a broom handle ,which she balanced across her shoulders. Many of the residents of that area would set aside all their recyclable plastic bottles in a bag separate from the recycling b ins- for her to pick up. We would hear her as early as 3 AM making her way up and down the hills with dozens and dozens of empty bottles.
A difficult way to make a few dollars but every once in awhile you could hear her humming as she picked up her bottles.
Must be in the air
“There are few things on this planet I hate more than bottled water. Just the crinkling sound of someone wrapping their mouth around one of those squeaky garbage accordions fills me with rage. I stopped drinking it a long time ago—and you should stop drinking it, too.”
http://gizmodo.com/stop-drinking-bottled-water-1704609514
In the early 20th century,
In the early 20th century, Edward Bernays (The father of propaganda, advertising and public relations) made it socially acceptable for women to smoke in public. He hired models to walk up and down NY’s Fifth Avenue openly smoking and he hired photographers to record the action.
Bottled water is a similar “success story”. When I first noticed city folks walking around Mt. Snow with their little plastic bottles, I thought this would be a short-lived craze. Was I wrong! It’s been a masterpiece of marketing. And completely ridiculous. Much of the water comes right out of city pipes. Spring water? What a joke. There’s even a brand called “Natural Water”, but it doesn’t come from nature.
What’s coming next? Everybody walking around breathing air from bottles on their backs and plastic tubes in their noses?
FWIW, the above referenced Gizmodo article is well worth reading.
Full disclosure: I’ve never purchased bottled water.
“Now that’s a waste of a good beer pitcher!”
I’ve been a tap facet drinker my whole life, beginning with our farm land’s well water. Each morning I begin my day, before anything enters my mouth with a 10 ounce glass of room temperature tap water. My day wouldn’t be the same without it. (It’s also a great way to reduce the incidence of kidney stones.)
Most of my adult life I drank NYC tap water straight from the faucet. NYC’s water was renown for its quality and taste. So renowned to the Jerseyites across the river, that NYC’s water was, ironically, bottled and sold on store shelves in Jersey City.
When I moved here, uncertain of getting the same quality, I bought two large, wide-mouth glass beer pitchers. Those pitchers were filled with Brattleboro’s tap water each morning daily. They sat on my counter for 24 hours. While I know the lite evaporation process doesn’t fully remove all fluoride or contaminates, at the least, the water definitely tastes better at room temperature.
About six years ago, I called Brattleboro’s water processing plant to check tap water drinking quality. I was assured Brattleboro’s water was safe to drink. When I told the fellow just to be sure I filled my large beer pitches with our tap water, he exclaimed, “Now that’s a waste of a good beer pitcher!”
You Know What They Say In Tyngsborough?
“Flush twice,they drink it in Lowell.”
Deposit bottle downside
There are organized “smugglers” bringing pickup loads of NH bottles and cans (where there is no deposit) to Vermont for redemption. The bottlers are lazy or careless and sell beverages in NH with VT markings.
Just History Repeating Itself.
Organized smugglers?
Yeah, I bet the colonists were demonzied for being creative by saving money from an over zealous taxing government back in the day.
It’s not that the bottlers are lazy. Why the hell should they cater to a Socialist regime and make a “special” can for different states.
And with the new .02/oz “sugar/sweet TAX” that Vermont will impose on the poor and middle class you will see more people buying redemption cans and bottles in NH. Bring it on.
As someone on here has said. “It’s not how much you make that makes you wealthy in Vermont. It’s how little tax you pay.”
Creative?
It may be creative, but it’s also dishonest AND illegal.
Definition of FALSE PRETENSES: This term applies to a premeditated and calculated act that misrepresents the facts of a situation in order to defraud. (Law Dictionary)
Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone. (John Maynard Keynes)
Everyone's a Criminal Today My Friend
Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” – Winston Churchill
the real source of evil
The profit motive of a capitalist society, in conjunction with competition among capitalists, leads to unnecessary cycles of booms and depressions, and ultimately encourages selfishness instead of cooperation. In addition, the educational system of such a society would be severely undermined because people will educate themselves only to advance their careers. This results in the “crippling of individuals” and the erosion of human creativity. Unrestrained competition in a capitalist society leads to a huge waste of labor and causes economic anarchy, the real source of capitalism’s “evil”.
Albert Einstein
Bottled Water is BIG Business
As a frequent traveler to El Salvador, I continually notice how much money goes into selling bottled water (the big bottling plants are often owned by Coca-Cola) vs how little goes into improving water infrastructure (both quantity and quality) in third world countries.
20 years ago, it was common practice to return glass bottles to the producer (beer brewery, soda bottling plant) for re-use. Now most soda is sold in plastic bottles. Because the infrastructure for garbage disposal and recycling is almost nonexistent, plastic trash accumulates everywhere.