Recycling Glass Bottles

renegadefm

For those of you old enough to remember when we used to take the bottles back to the local corner shop or back to the Corona delivery van and get a few pence back per bottle for them, just got me thinking why can't we start a trend like this in big name supermarkets such as Tesco, Asda,  etc?
This could encourage manufactures of drinks to cut out plastic bottles altogether and only produce drinks in glass bottles which could be returned for a fee back to the customer to encourage them to recycle. 
It seems odd to me that we we're doing this 40, 50 years ago, long before we knew how bad plastic waste was in the ocean. Why did we stop?
My parents used to be self recycling long before the way we recycle now by having a weekly bonfire and burn up all the things that end up on land fill sites etc. 
Somewhere along the line we went backwards, its little wonder our oceans are filled with rubbish, and we are running out of land fill space. Surely we need to bring the old values back? 

[Deleted User]

 Apparently there's been a big surge in people using milkmen for the glass bottles. I would but mine only delivers 2 days a week! 

renegadefm

_shel said:

 Apparently there's been a big surge in people using milkmen for the glass bottles. I would but mine only delivers 2 days a week! 

We did start having our milk delivered for the same reason, but we had to cancel it again because we found the milk didnt seem stay fresh for as long. Not sure why though because the milkman we used to have over 20 years ago the milk was fine. 
What 2 days does he deliver? Could you not just have a few bottles for the 2 days he or she delivers, and if you run out have supermarket milk as a last resort? 

[Deleted User]

 I tried getting double the amount but it didn't stay fresh so was buying in the plastic bottles do just gave up

renegadefm

_shel said:

 I tried getting double the amount but it didn't stay fresh so was buying in the plastic bottles do just gave up

Same problem as me Basically. 
I'm a bit disheartened that it won't stay fresh, it used to with our original milkman. 

renegadefm

@_shel
Did you complain to the milkman it wouldn't stay fresh. I told mine but they couldn't explain why supermarket milk keeps longer. 

renegadefm

_shel said:

 I tried getting double the amount but it didn't stay fresh so was buying in the plastic bottles do just gave up

What do you think of my idea to encourage supermarkets to stock glass bottles that could be taken back. Over night it would drastically cut out the use of plastic bottles. Maybe even do the same for any product in glass just as Jam etc. 

quoia

Question is ....

... whilst this would indeed cut down on the amount of plastic in the environment, IS IT ANY "GREENER"?
Does it have an equivalent or lower carbon footprint?
Transporting a container that could weigh as much as its contents (as opposed to one that's only a very small fraction of it), then transporting it back to whence it came, to go through a thorough cleaning and sterilising routine using a huge quantity of both water and energy.
This process could possibly require the bottles to go via a 3rd cleaning location (if not at the bottling plant) increasing its journey time & distance and therefore mean increased fuel costs, and incur additional labour every time they are handled.
A percentage of the bottles would not make the journey back to be refilled, some would (hopefully) be rejected if cracked or chipped.
What is the carbon footprint (can, if, when recoverable?) of designing and constructing the cleaning buildings and machinery within them, and modifying the existing bottling plants to handle the new designs ?
Would glass bottles of 2 pints, 4 pints and 6 pints be available?
The larger the bottle means the ratio of container to its contents is lower which is better!
Is it even possible to make these sizes at all?
(That's from a feasible, practical and cost effective aspect of course - we know you can actually make one 10 gallon)
Would everyone that wants 6 pints be happy to carry home 6 x 1 pint bottles from the supermarket?
That over 1.5 kilograms of glass in your carrier bags, meaning your MPG goes down just a fraction in your car journey home - and that of 20+ million other vehicles !
Apparently since the ban of FREE single use carrier bags at supermarkets, being either not available at all or at a small charge, whilst the "littering" problem has significantly reduced, the amount of plastic "consumed" has massively gone up.
The "Bag for Life" consumption has skyrocketed and the point at which using a BforL becomes beneficially "Greener", can be as high as only when it has been used for the 39th time - a number never achieved - the average reuses of a BforL never even getting close to double figures. They have become a B for a W - that's a WEEK - the average household buying 54 (that's FIFTY FOUR!) a year
Be careful what you wish for

MrGreen

Plastic bottle reverse vending machine have been trailed at Sainsburys and Iceland last year not sure what the results are and if it will be expanded.
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2019/06/sainsburys-trials-reverse-vending-machines-for-plastic-bottles-a/

http://www.reversevending.co.uk/

greyteam1959

renegadefm said:9

_shel said:

 I tried getting double the amount but it didn't stay fresh so was buying in the plastic bottles do just gave up

Same problem as me Basically. 
I'm a bit disheartened that it won't stay fresh, it used to with our original milkman. 

You milk does not stay fresh for one very good reason.
Have you ever seen a milk delivery roundsman with a refrigerated vehicle ??
No wonder it goes off.

molerat

MrGreen said:

Plastic bottle reverse vending machine have been trailed at Sainsburys and Iceland last year not sure what the results are and if it will be expanded.
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2019/06/sainsburys-trials-reverse-vending-machines-for-plastic-bottles-a/

http://www.reversevending.co.uk/

My local Aldi have planning permission in for a reverse vending machine in the car park, constructing a 10m x 5m extension to house it.

Tesco are working with Loop https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/zone/loop?icid=LOOP_GHS , not sure how successful that is going to be or really how "green".

But why are we not like Denmark where, for example, all beer bottles are the same so it doesn't matter where they come from as they can go back to any brewery and are cleaned and re-used.