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Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,580 posts, read 81,186,228 times
Reputation: 57818
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OpenD
Ohmigard, how did people ever survive in the days before throwaway plastic garbage bags? It must have been absolutely brutal in those days!
At the risk of showing my age, I remember as a kid lining the garbage can with old newspapers so that after the "garbage man" emptied it there was not as much of a mess to wash out.
The trouble we have where I live is that plastic bags escape into the environment and kill whales, seals, dolphins, turtles and other marine animals. There's a really insightful report that the state of Florida put together... http://www.dep.state.fl.us/waste/qui...rt_01Feb10.pdf
One of the most interesting statistics is that one reusable bag replaces about 60 plastic bags over the course of a year!
Instead of addressing the real problem, supporting the idea of making recyclable plastic bags, the do-gooders simply ban plastic bags. Just how does that solve the problem? It just creates new problems.
Most plastic bags are recyclable. Most grocery stores etc. have bins for people to place their bags in for recycling.
Something wrong with glass? I grew up in Philadelphia and there was a candy store on just about every other corner. They all sold soda. Pepsi was king because it was a 12 ounce bottle (glass) instead of the six ounces of Coke (glass bottle). There was also orange soda, grape soda, Chukka, which was a sort of chocolate drink, like Yoo-Hoo. You paid a nickel for the soda, but you paid a two cent deposit on the bottle. When you brought the bottle back, you got your two cents.
Milk came in glass bottles. When empty, you rinsed it out and put it on the step for the milkman to take when he left your next bottle of milk. We have a local dairy that still sells milk in glass bottles. Asking for a deposit virtually assures that the bottles will be returned.
Since there was a cash incentive to return the bottles, it was rare to see discarded bottles on the street. Even if some slug left one, someone else would quickly scoop it up to return for the few cents. Conservation, consideration and civility made for a cleaner, nicer environment.
We have become a throw-away world. If we each made one small effort at cleaning it up, our children and their children would see the change.
Most plastic bags are recyclable. Most grocery stores etc. have bins for people to place their bags in for recycling.
I'm not seeing the outrage.
This is true. But I saw some of it.
I was visiting family in a nearby New England state recently, and stopped at a store which is part of a large regional chain of grocery stores. At the checkout, the cashier asked if I wished to purchase the store-branded cloth bags. I replied, "No," and was treated to an angry lecture about how they had "changed the laws for plastic bags in CA, and it'll be here in this state in no time". "I'll wait till then," I told her with a smile.
That lady turned me right OFF buying from that chain again. They lost a customer right then and there. Sure, I know it will be coming to most states at some point, but that is no excuse to try to push the fabric bags on customers who say "No", and certainly not to lecture a customer who is doing something perfectly legal at this time. This lady was definitely environmentally-oriented, and the lecture was not solely about plastic bags, but a tacit scolding of my habits by someone whose agenda I do not share.
And these people wonder why they alienate others and turn them off their cause!
Something wrong with glass? I grew up in Philadelphia and there was a candy store on just about every other corner. They all sold soda. Pepsi was king because it was a 12 ounce bottle (glass) instead of the six ounces of Coke (glass bottle). There was also orange soda, grape soda, Chukka, which was a sort of chocolate drink, like Yoo-Hoo. You paid a nickel for the soda, but you paid a two cent deposit on the bottle. When you brought the bottle back, you got your two cents.
Milk came in glass bottles. When empty, you rinsed it out and put it on the step for the milkman to take when he left your next bottle of milk. We have a local dairy that still sells milk in glass bottles. Asking for a deposit virtually assures that the bottles will be returned.
Since there was a cash incentive to return the bottles, it was rare to see discarded bottles on the street. Even if some slug left one, someone else would quickly scoop it up to return for the few cents. Conservation, consideration and civility made for a cleaner, nicer environment.
We have become a throw-away world. If we each made one small effort at cleaning it up, our children and their children would see the change.
Agreed!! This was a great source of revenue for kids...my parents would let us have the money from taking the bottles back to the store. A funny story...my husband and his cousin ( when they were in elementary and middle school!) used to pick up old liquor bottles that were thrown out car windows and cash them in at the local bootlegger...25 cents for pints and 50 cents for quarts and some fancy brands. Good money, but that's a different kind of recycling.......
I would totally support glass bottles with deposits on them. I don't know why it ever stopped.
Something wrong with glass? I grew up in Philadelphia and there was a candy store on just about every other corner. They all sold soda. Pepsi was king because it was a 12 ounce bottle (glass) instead of the six ounces of Coke (glass bottle). There was also orange soda, grape soda, Chukka, which was a sort of chocolate drink, like Yoo-Hoo. You paid a nickel for the soda, but you paid a two cent deposit on the bottle. When you brought the bottle back, you got your two cents.
Milk came in glass bottles. When empty, you rinsed it out and put it on the step for the milkman to take when he left your next bottle of milk. We have a local dairy that still sells milk in glass bottles. Asking for a deposit virtually assures that the bottles will be returned.
Since there was a cash incentive to return the bottles, it was rare to see discarded bottles on the street. Even if some slug left one, someone else would quickly scoop it up to return for the few cents. Conservation, consideration and civility made for a cleaner, nicer environment.
We have become a throw-away world. If we each made one small effort at cleaning it up, our children and their children would see the change.
Nothing wrong with glass at all, I asked the question, you answered it, thank you.
I agree with using glass. There are a few companies that use glass for their products, like for tea and sparkling water, even the cola giants offer glass in some of their main products. I do not see why this cannot be expanded to water, and basically to most liquid products. I see why they do not expand, cost, but the cost is burdened by society on the discarded end, rather than it upfront and avoid the externalities and the cost associated with.
Something wrong with glass? I grew up in Philadelphia and there was a candy store on just about every other corner. They all sold soda. Pepsi was king because it was a 12 ounce bottle (glass) instead of the six ounces of Coke (glass bottle). There was also orange soda, grape soda, Chukka, which was a sort of chocolate drink, like Yoo-Hoo. You paid a nickel for the soda, but you paid a two cent deposit on the bottle. When you brought the bottle back, you got your two cents.
Milk came in glass bottles. When empty, you rinsed it out and put it on the step for the milkman to take when he left your next bottle of milk. We have a local dairy that still sells milk in glass bottles. Asking for a deposit virtually assures that the bottles will be returned.
Since there was a cash incentive to return the bottles, it was rare to see discarded bottles on the street. Even if some slug left one, someone else would quickly scoop it up to return for the few cents. Conservation, consideration and civility made for a cleaner, nicer environment.
We have become a throw-away world. If we each made one small effort at cleaning it up, our children and their children would see the change.
When my husband was in service (Vietnam era) the glass bottles was a cash cow for us. The bottle deposit in our home town was two cents and the city where we were stationed was ten cents!! My dad, sister and family would save Pepsi/Coke bottles for us. Eight cents return on the investment, you can't find that anywhere today.
And you are absolutely right, you didn't see glass bottles thrown on the highways and byways they were picked up quick. I remember as a kid looking for bottles to take to the store for the deposit.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,580 posts, read 81,186,228 times
Reputation: 57818
Quote:
Originally Posted by CarolinaWoman
When my husband was in service (Vietnam era) the glass bottles was a cash cow for us. The bottle deposit in our home town was two cents and the city where we were stationed was ten cents!! My dad, sister and family would save Pepsi/Coke bottles for us. Eight cents return on the investment, you can't find that anywhere today.
And you are absolutely right, you didn't see glass bottles thrown on the highways and byways they were picked up quick. I remember as a kid looking for bottles to take to the store for the deposit.
Besides the obvious disadvantage of the weight for people to carry around, the trend away from glass was in labor costs. From the retail time spent charging and refunding deposits, to collecting/storing/shipping the empties, cleaning them out before refilling at the plant, all that adds up. I personally use an aluminum water bottle and refill it from the tap because we have great tasting water and aluminum is light, but if you go to any summer event they will be selling ice cold water in bottles (Plastic) and even if you have a container all you can get is a drinking fountain with semi-luke warm water.
Ohmigard, how did people ever survive in the days before throwaway plastic garbage bags? It must have been absolutely brutal in those days!
Think about open sewers, throwing out the poop and old school **** pots (from the window into the street below), and disease. Yes, it was brutal in the early part of last century and before. And people let their pets just crap and pee wherever. How did we survive? We invented things that made life more convenient, that's how.
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