I know this gets controversial, but I’m surprised how durable those PET bottles are. Like you could just keep filling them up with various products and they still hold up even after years of service.
But they get thrown away, and I know Coca Cola/Pepsi actually kinda promotes that.
I see people use those big 5 liter jugs and fill them with water at filling stations (I know this is done in the US as well), so my question is, why doesn’t Coca Cola promote this? Say you buy a 2 liter bottle of coke, then you take it to a filling station either at a grocery store or whatever, and refill it with more coke. It would hugely cut down on waste instead of going after plastic straws. I’m willing to bet those plastic bottles can last for years, and they absolutely should charge a large deposit on them to further promote its reuse (I know Germany does this).
So my question is, why isn’t this done? Coca Cola used to charge a large deposit on glass bottles and you normally take them back to the store to have it refilled.
Coca Cola could absolutely make huge profits from this too, as soda fountains are like really, unbelievably cheap (a 2 liter bottle of coke contains like 1nt worth of soda in it).
I would say glass bottles too! Those are more durable and better to recycle. Taiwan producers mostly do not use glass bottles as they see no monetary benefit from it.
There is no infrastructure to collect bottles here. The only thing Taiwan has is those elderly who go around and collect recyclables to earn a few pennies.
Glass is too heavy and fragile. Plastic really is much better from a weight and use standpoint. I think they should make it slightly thicker, more durable, and reusable.
This is something governments need to mandate though.
Not really. That has no effect on Coke; that’s not how they operate. The Coca-Cola System.
And if that were how they operated, while soda is insanely cheap, plastic bottles are even more insane in how little they cost. You’re literally chasing a couple pennies while talking about how insanely cheap the cost of the product is.
I think plastic soda bottles are re-used. Or why are they sorted out? Or do you mean why are they not re-used by the exact same company after a wash, without smelting them over?
As far as I know, they’re simply thrown into the landfill (at least in the states). I do not know how much, if any plastic bottles are recycled in Taiwan, but I’ve heard recycling plastic is simply not worth it. I heard someone said that the recycling trucks simply throws everything into the trash at the end of the day. And there’s no excuse for any of this. Those bottles are quite tough, and can probably be made tougher to better tolerate reuse.
Yea, I’m asking why are plastic bottle not simply reused after a wash by the exact same company. It would be more environmental, but the government only goes after plastic bags and straws.
It sounds like the government should mandate this other than throwing stuff away. Seems all they ever do is ineffectual stuff that takes away from quality of life.
If you made the taxes high enough to make it worthwhile to recycle them, people would have to pay a little extra and they would scream about it. People love the environment as long as they don;t have to pay for its protection.
It’s unlikely to reach the point of the little people having the choice of being hypocrites. The people already making fortunes will stop any such eventuality.
It’s not only that (adding a deposit which does drive uo cost )but then you have to manage it and how to claim it back like putting them in machines in Europe. Just more hassle.
You have to make it easier to look after the environment, you will find people are more willing to spend an extra NTD or two for convenience than they are to save the planet. You can’t do it by just making not recycling more expensive, people will just go back to littering or more fly tipping.