Glass Bottles are Making a Comeback

[LostInTransit]

So I get the craving a soda once in a while and although I shouldn't have one, I've been more aware that the Glass soda bottle is making a big return to the shelves. Not only does this help me limited the soda intake, but it's better for the environment because I'm not buy plastic. Same holds true for the beer bottles. In this case I tend to gravitate towards the Blue bottles, break them up and place in the tumblers to make sea glass. Glass is also easier to recycle that plastic. So next time you're wanting a drink of some kind, think about buying the glass bottle over the plastic bottles.

 

[FowVay]

Glass is the superior choice of packaging for liquids. However, it is limited in the sense that you can't take glass into many venues or onto a beach for safety reasons.

Also, no self respecting beer connoisseur would drink beer from a can.

 

[wpod]

Environment? Not drinking soda would be better for the environment.

 

[JavierH19]

In mexico and other countries they make the glass bottles reusable, both for soda and beer bottles by making them stupid thick and heavy duty. You buy the soda or beer bottle at full price and you bring back the empty bottle and get a discount on the next one to encourage reuse. The bottles get trucked back to the factory once the refilled ones are dropped off so a trip isn't wasted and they get cleaned, refilled, and re capped. It's common to drink from a bottle that has tons of scratches on it. You can tell if a bottle isn't reusable if it doesn't say "retornable" or returnable or if it just feels like super thin glass like those Heineken bottles when broken. Because of this you almost never see plastic bottles or aluminum cans. They do sell beer and soda in cans and plastic bottles but it's pretty rare.

 

[Rat407]

I remember the days you got a .10 cent return on the bottle when you took it back. People would be to lazy today.

 

[IndyIan]

I remember the days you got a .10 cent return on the bottle when you took it back. People would be to lazy today.

Some would still toss them, but then there lots of people in my area that walk the ditches every spring for returnable empties as well.

 

[leadcounsel]

I prefer glass for most things. Doesn't leach, preserves taste better, etc. The problem is recycling. It's very difficult to find recycling around here so I end up with huge boxes of glass bottles, which I have to then take to a centralized location. Makes me absolutely sick the amount of glass that goes right into the landfill. Ever see the dumpster of a busy bar? A ton of broken bottles. People want to save the environment, fine businesses like bars for not recycling. Recycling should be mandatory for such places. I think it's critical to reduce, reuse, and recycle as much as feasible and viable. Even better, save your recyclables pile, save your dirty dishwater, and use it to wash out your recyclables before dumping the water down the drain. Double benefit.

Glass can be ground up into sand-like grains of silica, and then repurposed. I've even seen examples of beach sand, that is ground up glass. Some are "colored" sand. Pretty cool.

Not soda, but I tend to keep a lot of the nice mason type jars (e.g. spaghetti sauce) for a variety of jar-related needs. Cooking needs, sorting random fasteners, etc.

Plastic and aluminum OTOH are picked up curbside here. I think there are programs where volunteers or inmates sort and clean recyclables for processing.

 

[DriveHard]

Glass is the superior choice of packaging for liquids. However, it is limited in the sense that you can't take glass into many venues or onto a beach for safety reasons.

Also, no self respecting beer connoisseur would drink beer from a can.

...or from a clear or green glass bottle. They are brown for a reason - to block UV light that damages the beer.

 

[FowVay]

...or from a clear or green glass bottle. They are brown for a reason - to block UV light that damages the beer.

That's right! Prosit!

 

[RooflessVW]

I think the most wasteful aspect is that we spend all this money shipping around water.

Products like Gatorade, juices etc. Even soda to a certain extent. RTU cleaning products. Shipping plastic and water from one area to the other.

 

[JohnnyG]

UNFORTUNATELY, it is cheaper to manufacture new glass than it is to recycle the old.
Which puts this into the same category as green hydrogen and biomass for electricity.

 

[NismoNVT]

I remember the days you got a .10 cent return on the bottle when you took it back. People would be to lazy today.

On a side note

Why is recycling bottles by dumping into a recycling bin is considered a good thing, while recycling bottles by taking them to the supermarket for the return is considered a person who is economically disadvantaged?

 

[kschachn]

On a side note

Why is recycling bottles by dumping into a recycling bin is considered a good thing, while recycling bottles by taking them to the supermarket for the return is considered a person who is economically disadvantaged?

No clue what side note you're trying to start here.

 

[chainblu]

On the plus side, glass is easier to recycle than some plastics... when you recycle. My county presently does NOT recycle glass. On the other hand, it's one of those things that will languish for centuries in a landfill.

 

[Blueshound]

My kids got us a SodaStream and we got a few different flavors of syrup. Works pretty well but you can't get the commercial flavors. It uses large CO2 cartridges that get mailed back and reused. Well water, syrup, and ice, very little waste.

 

[BHopkins]

I like glass bottles. But the lack of recycling does bother me. My local waste company won't take glass either. But for that matter, there is a lot of plastics that they won't take either. So, from a recycling standpoint, is glass any worse?

 

[53' Stude]

I prefer glass for most things. Doesn't leach, preserves taste better, etc. The problem is recycling. It's very difficult to find recycling around here so I end up with huge boxes of glass bottles, which I have to then take to a centralized location. Makes me absolutely sick the amount of glass that goes right into the landfill. Ever see the dumpster of a busy bar? A ton of broken bottles. People want to save the environment, fine businesses like bars for not recycling. Recycling should be mandatory for such places. I think it's critical to reduce, reuse, and recycle as much as feasible and viable. Even better, save your recyclables pile, save your dirty dishwater, and use it to wash out your recyclables before dumping the water down the drain. Double benefit.

Glass can be ground up into sand-like grains of silica, and then repurposed. I've even seen examples of beach sand, that is ground up glass. Some are "colored" sand. Pretty cool.

Not soda, but I tend to keep a lot of the nice mason type jars (e.g. spaghetti sauce) for a variety of jar-related needs. Cooking needs, sorting random fasteners, etc.

Plastic and aluminum OTOH are picked up curbside here. I think there are programs where volunteers or inmates sort and clean recyclables for processing.

I hear you 110%. What peturbs me is that more used oil, fluids aren’t recycled more. I mean crude oil won’t last forever

 

[Lubener]

So I get the craving a soda once in a while and although I shouldn't have one, I've been more aware that the Glass soda bottle is making a big return to the shelves. Not only does this help me limited the soda intake, but it's better for the environment because I'm not buy plastic. Same holds true for the beer bottles. In this case I tend to gravitate towards the Blue bottles, break them up and place in the tumblers to make sea glass. Glass is also easier to recycle that plastic. So next time you're wanting a drink of some kind, think about buying the glass bottle over the plastic bottles.

Nothing like a cold soda from a glass bottle.

 

[brianl703]

Back when I was a kid in the 80s Coke still came in bottles that were returned to the store. This was in suburban Chicago, other parts of the country were different--I know when we moved to Northern Virginia, Coke didn't come in returnable glass bottles there. I remember the bottles had "MONEY BACK BOTTLE" printed on them.

 

[Blueshound]

One thing I never see anymore is re-using bottles. Back in the 1980's, cheap beer came in "bar bottles" and the box had a deposit too. The bottles were actually washed and refilled. Carling Black Label and Utica Club, $6 per case and worth every penny lol. Way more efficient than smashing and melting but the bottles were pretty beat up.