If all those PET soda bottles (glass and aluminum too) had a 10-cent deposit
they would be returned for recycling at a rate of 90%. There will be more
and more PET bottles and fewer and fewer aluminum cans. Actually, while
aluminum cans are easier to recycle (because they are so expensive to
manufacture--use enormous amounts of energy, etc) they are only recycled at
a rate of 60% nationwide and lower than that in non-bottle bill states. The
40% that DON'T GET RECYCLED cause huge environmental problems where the
bauxite is mined and the alumina is made.
Check out our website for info on beverage container recycling and bottle bills.
Container Recycling Institute
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Message From: Debbie
We have run into the same problem here at the University of Arizona,
This past year the University negotiated a multi-million dollar, 10 year
contract with Pepsi and no one involved considered "recycling" in the
contract. Profits appear to be the only motivation for the increase in
plastic. Many of our vending machines have been replaced for machines
dispensing only plastic and the remaining machines we have been told
will eventually be replaced. No thoughts were discussed on what to do
with the plastic other than Pepsi offered trash containers for the emply
plastic bottles but no one thought about what to do with the plastic
after that. Needless to say most of the plastic is going to the
landfill as Tucson is still very much in the dark ages when it comes to
recycling. Big business is not going to back down when they can create
a larger profit from plastic so it appears the recycling efforts will
have to refocus on plastic and create a recycling market within that
area.
Our recycling effort has concentrated on recycling aluminum within our
18 residence halls. The money earned from recycling aluminum has been
returned to the the halls and they are allowed to use it for programming
within their hall. There are also competitions among the halls as to who
can recycle the most pounds per resident. We have even used conduct
cases to assist with our recycling effort. They get the dirty job of
removing contamination and crushing cans before they go to the recycling
center. As plastic takes over our program must re-evolve to include
plastic. Plastic occupies more space and long into the future mankind
will be digging up the plastic we are throwing away today! I know
plastic can be as successful as aluminum but there needs to be a effort
put forth from business and law makers to assist and prevent as much
plastic as possible from being dumped. This is just the tip of the
iceberg!
Debbie Hanson
University of Arizona
Project & Environmental Coordinator
From: Bill Carter <WCARTER@tnrcc.state.tx.us>
To: greenyes@earthsystems.org, zerowaste@grrn.org
Subject: [GRRN] Bottles vs. Cans -Reply
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The aluminum-to-plastic container switch in institutional soda vending
machines sparked another reminiscence from an old recycler: one of the
first campaigns of the newly formed Ecology Action of Austin undertook
in the early 1970's was called "Cans on Campus." The University of
Texas was beginning to convert campus soft drink vending machines
from returnable glass bottles to metal cans, and Ecology Action waged
an ultimately unsuccessful drive to stop the conversion.