• el_bhm@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    Aluminium and glass is close to infinitely recyclable.

    Better yet, glass bottles can be reused up to 7 times.

    But it costs more than a returnable plastic bottle. Which obviously costs more than a sturdy as a trashbag plastic bottle.

    • barsoap@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      Glass isn’t easy to recycle because just a little bit of the wrong stuff can mess up a batch.

      It is reusable, though, and you can shatter it and get aggregate for concrete which is getting rare these days as all the obvious places to get sand from, such as deserts, have grains that are way too round. In that case it doesn’t matter if there’s the occasional mug or drinking glass or window pane in the recycling, concrete doesn’t care.

      PET is actually excellent for recycling provided that you actually recycle it, i.e. have a deposit scheme that works. Like the German 25ct/bottle one. Provides a very clean recycling stream, the product is light and doesn’t use much volume at all when shipped to the bottling plant (they’re expanding the bottles on site), etc. Also, nature apparently is learning how to break up PET.

      • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        That’s just a number based on experience. Some bottles break first time out of the factory… others last 15 times. They are used untill they are too degraded for reuse.

        • TheEntity@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Ah, so this was about melting the bottle down and making a new bottle 7 times? As opposed to washing the bottle and reusing it as it was. Makes much more sense now. :)

          • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            No 7 times is for washing. Melting and reshaping is a new bottle. But with glass bottles break and scuff