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It is estimated that in the U.S. alone, consumers use 1,500 plastic water bottles every single second. But only about 23% of PET plastic, which is the plastic used in disposable plastic water bottles, gets recycled. Thus, about 38 billion water bottles are thrown away annually, equating to roughly $1 billion worth of plastic. [3]
Recycled glass is a necessity, as without it, manufacturers would not be able to keep up with the demand for new glass containers. [2] Recycling one glass bottle can save enough energy to power a computer for 25 minutes. [5] In fact for every 10% of cullet added to the production of a new bottle, energy usage goes down by 3-4%. [2]
The history of bottle recycling in the United States has been characterized by four distinct stages. In the first stage, during the late 18th century and early 19th century, most bottles were reused or returned. [1] When bottles were mass-produced, people started throwing them out, which led to the introduction of bottle deposits. [2]
Water bottles can be either disposable or reusable. Disposable water bottles are often sold filled with potable water, while reusable bottles are often sold empty. Reusable water bottles help cut down on consumer plastic waste and carbon emissions. [citation needed]. A reusable water bottle designed for outdoor activities is also called a canteen.
Thinner plastic bottles are harder to recycle. The average yield of PET bottle recycling in Europe dropped from 73% to 63% between 2011 and 2017, with low-plastic bottles being blamed for a higher moisture content in recycling bales, and for producing thinner plastic flakes which are more likely to be discarded during the recycling process. [2]
Reusable bottles for milk, soda, and beer have been part of closed-loop use-return-clean-refill-reuse cycles. Food storage containers are typically reusable. Thick plastic water bottles are promoted as an environmental improvement over thin single-use water bottles. Some plastic cups can be re-used, though most are disposable.
Venice Biennale installation by Małgorzata Mirga-Tas (2022) - artistic upcycling of old textile materials. While recycling usually means the materials are remade into their original form, e.g., recycling plastic bottles into plastic polymers, which then produce plastic bottles through the manufacturing process, upcycling adds more value to the materials, as the name suggested.
President and CEO of Nestlé Waters North America (until 2013 [9]) Kim Jeffery responded to several of the questions brought up by the film, stating that the bottles used for the products were safe and that one of the chemicals discovered in the tests, bisphenol A was "in the liners of all canned foods to prevent botulism, and in the DVDs of the documentary that people were able to purchase".